The other “N” word — the one associated not just with race, but with pseudo-scientific racism and anti-Semitism — is just as derogatory, just as evocative, just as powerful in its ability to inflict pain: Nazism.
While I truly know the power this other “N” word carries and don’t use it lightly, it’s nonetheless the only one I find fitting to ascribe to the mindsets and behaviors of some sick and twisted individuals who hide behind keyboards and computer screens.
As the debate rages on regarding police brutality and misconduct here in Cleveland and around the country, it’s becoming increasingly clear — judging from many of the comments posted on press websites, and via text messages I routinely receive on my Sunday radio show — that some folks are so far to the right, so willing and eager to deny other citizens their basic rights, so gleeful in their delight at the pain and suffering of others, they really deserve to be called out for what they truly are: Nazis … kissing cousins to the Klan.
Supporting cops is one thing … supporting brutality and routine torture by armed agents of the city/state is quite another.
When a news story ran in Ohio’s largest newspaper documenting how cops routinely slap handcuffs on suspects being taken into custody so tightly they cause severe pain (not to mention dangerous loss of blood circulation to hands), some people posting comments about the incidents cavalierly stated it was the suspects’ own fault since they must have done something to get handcuffed in the first place. That kind of tacit approval of brutality is frightening, and those making such posts are the direct, sick, progeny of the Brownshirted brutes of Germany in the 1920s and ’30s. Only true fascists believe in subjecting fellow citizens to extra-judicial physical punishment dispensed by armed men operating under the color of governmental authority.
And this blind support, this blaming the victims for the indignities and damage they suffer at the hands of police has the effect of assuring that the problem of police brutality will continue until a more powerful authority forces an end to it. Indeed, cops often feel they are doing exactly what their supporters want them to do, and in that respect they are right. Some Americans don’t simply turn a blind eye to wrongdoing; they actively and vocally support it. We need to be mindful of the fact a majority of Germans supported Hitler and all of the madness of the Third Reich.
This small but vocal minority is, however, fighting a losing battle. No matter how much they and Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association president Steve Loomis complain about liberal media failing to provide an accurate portrait of the problem of police violence, the facts speak for themselves, and their stance of supporting cops no matter how egregious the behavior they engage in makes Loomis and his supporters far less than honest brokers in the debate, which makes their comments all the more scurrilous.
Indeed, his own racist behavior in 2007 (during a drunken altercation at an Indians game, when a black female sergeant attempted to intervene, Loomis called her a “black bitch,” an action that got him suspended) renders him suspect when he constantly proclaims there is no racism within the ranks of the Cleveland Division of Police. This failure to forthrightly address the shortcomings of the department makes him look like a buffoon … and he’s constantly complaining that the media won’t allow him to tell his and the cops’ side of the issue. Why should any sane person listen to such slanted nonsense?
The mistreatment of minorities and the poor at the hands of brutal cops is a national embarrassment; other countries around the world — countries our leaders have been wagging fingers of disapproval at for their treatment of citizens — are closely watching America, and making judgments based on how we solve this disgraceful national embarrassment … or not solve it. Our international reputation is at stake, but our homegrown Brownshirts seemingly fail to comprehend this obvious fact … or at least they pretend not to, but it’s hard to imagine even they are that dense.
However, the good news is, a recently released report on use of force by Cleveland cops shows reductions in all categories, and with the hot glare of media focused on the department I think it’s fair to assume that the use of force figures will continue to decline now that cops know someone is watching. But with that said, any incident of unnecessary use of force is one too many, and if history teaches us one thing, it’s this: We must be forever vigilant lest darkness once again descends upon us.
[Photo: takomabibelot (Flickr)]
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.