On Police Brutality, Civil Unrest, and Resisting Simplified Narratives

Last updated on: May 28, 2020 at 10:05 am by Jennifer Fitz

On Police Brutality, Civil Unrest, and Resisting Simplified Narratives 2020-05-28T10:05:42-05:00 Jennifer Fitz

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Last night during the protesting and looting in Minneapolis, I viewed a few of the videos and read a fair number of the live reports of what was happening. If I were to summarize the situation as I perceived it, it would be this:

Quite a few peaceful citizens were out assembling in protest, as is their constitutional right, and as they well should have been doing, in light of the recent egregious police brutality that needs to have ended forty years ago.
Some lawless citizens, black and white, male and female, took advantage of the situation to loot area businesses. (Said based on the videos I viewed that showed assorted persons leaving Target with their stash, most either eager that their faces not be filmed or at least in a hurry to exit stage right.)
Pillaging and burning ensued, as well as at least one fatality, and precisely who was doing what, why and how, is more difficult to parse out — we can imagine that some of that gratuitous violence was the work of revolution-inspired protesters being utterly stupid and vicious, some of it was the work of criminals who just like to destroy stuff and hurt people, and some of it no doubt happened at the hands of people who would be hard pressed to articulate quite where they fell on that muddied spectrum.
The police were not amused. Also: This level of uprising is beyond the present ability of the city police to manage without resorting to slaughter. No surprises on either of those counts.

As is our habit these days, commentary is falling into two over-simplified narratives:

Oppressed persons . . . something something something . . . therefore the civilian violence is excusable.
Lawless criminals . . . something something something . . . therefore the police brutality is excusable.

Consider the possibility that there is a different way of assessing this situation that is both more accurate and more productive. I propose as an initial attempt:

Because we live in a broken-down, crime-ridden society, many if not all police officers are operating in a state of heightened fear and over-reaction.
Our morally-askew culture doesn’t promote violence and impulsiveness selectively — therefore the humans who are working as police officers are also being programmed to behave violently, just as is happening to other citizens. Google “Game of Thrones” if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about.
American citizens are rightly outraged by the way that unwarranted police violence has become a commonplace. This happens even against affluent white people in liberal states.
Racism is clearly the motivator in many (not all) cases where African-Americans are the victims of police or civilian violence, and likely the motivator in many (not all) other cases. This is a serious issue that, see book recommendation below, plays a significant part on all sides of the societal-violence problem.
Something is clearly very, very wrong when there is a steady flow of reports from around the nation that involve the police killing people while apprehending suspects in non-capital crimes (such as counterfeiting), as well as killing innocent bystanders in the process of apprehending unequivocally dangerous persons.
The fact that we live in a violent, lawless society — the sort where a peaceful protest inspires pillaging and burning — in no way undermines the cause of the peaceful protesters demanding the police knock it off with the violence and lawlessness.

This is not a left or right issue. It is not conservative or liberal. It’s not even religious or secular, though religion has plenty to say about morality and right living. Thus:

You can be a veil-wearing, husband-submitting, ultra-conservative, ultra-religious housewife on the extreme right, or you can be a gigolo on the extreme left who dresses like such a gal for the annual pride parade, and come to the same exact conclusion on this issue.
You can own all the guns or want to outlaw all the guns and come to the same exact conclusion on this issue.
You can Adore Trump or Trust Biden and come to the same exact conclusion on this issue.

The police not-killing civilians is not a partisan policy position. It’s a normal decent human being position.

***

It is, nonetheless, a difficult position to legislate. Just as the problem is complex, so are the potential solutions. As it turns out, there’s a bit of contemporary military science that has assessed the factors that make human beings more willing to kill more easily — and therefore given us some information on how to decrease the likelihood of brutality as well. It’s worth a look. Initial book review is here.

Artwork courtesy of Wikimedia, CC 4.0.

Previous Post

May 19, 2020

R.R. Reno Does the Right Thing

Next Post

June 5, 2020 Quit Making Racism the Young Man's Burden

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Catechesis Catholic Q&A Chastity Church Craziness Come See Me Talk Disability & Chronic Illness Economics Evangelization Facepalm Forgiveness Good Things History Homeschooling Human Rights It's All Catholic Listen to Me Survey Series Liturgical Living Marriage Modesty Not Satire. But almost. Rant-o-Rama Sacred Art & Music Satire South Carolina Spark Clutter Stick that Corner Suffering Thinking Topics Writing Stuff

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 January 2026 December 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 November 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Paul tells the Colossians to set their minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE