My Apology to a Reader and The Capitol Police
The Made-For-TV Insurrection versus the Real Police
I want to make a substantial correction to the record, or rather a further differentiation based on important comment by reader/writer. I didn’t properly show respect to the actual capital police and criticism January 6 riots/insurrections. When witnessing a couple Capitol Police moving a barrier, I noted that the police moved the barrier aside to let the white men enter. My careful reading of the comment brought me to a new understanding: Capitol Police have different training and reactions we are not used to seeing.
the perception I was commenting on was from my previous years of watching cops respond violently to blacks and letting white militias take freely to the streets. I thus blamed the Capitol Police for politely moving barriers to let the white protestors in. I should have known better, or seen deeper. But dialogue can bring up critical ideas and bring new ways of seeing. After hearing from a reader about this issue, I then watched the testimony of the actual Capitol Police before Congress. I believe we must listen and go back to learn what we can from the earnestly though out contributions readers/writers make. Only deeper reflection together brings about deeper understandings.
The actual Capitol Police and their Congressional testimony gave us moving insight into the horror as individuals they experienced from the insurrectionist onslaught that was violent. Their tears in their angry testimony were genuine. They came from re-experienced terror reflecting on the magnitude of those moments. Some of them will go through PTSD for years to come. Some of them have physical scars and many of them or all have metal scars.
But there is a need to note that there is a difference watching the police that day. Initially, before the violence erupted more fully, we did see some police move outer barriers though. It’s true that the police force at the Capitol are trying to be nice and respectful to visitors as they often encounter polite dignitaries, congressman, and a general visiting public of tourist with reverence towards the Capitol. The atmosphere typically yields a show of respect towards to those they encounter.
Although these federal officers have seen protests before, they are often protests that are made facing outward with the capital as backdrop and the cameras turned on in front of the protesters. Generally, from recent times I’ve seen only relative peaceful protest and not armed mobs swarming and surrounding the Capitol. Then kicking in windows and knocking down doors and invading offices of respected lawmakers, ready to plant a confederate flag as victory.
Yet, they are a police force, and from that perspective, we already sense a training and manner quite strikingly different from what we normally see in viral video clips and on national TV news. What’s interesting is the training involved in shaping their responses. The moving of a barrier was one perhaps out of ‘inbred’ general decency, like holding a door for a lady. Let the crowd in to the next security level and perhaps they will calm down. It could have been a move of mitigation. I believe they are trained to respond to the general public in a far different manner than the cops in clips, like that of Derek Chauvin. Capitol Police are trained from what I’ve heard to treat people with dignity and respect, and even the rioters received that at first.
I saw at first the police who moved to the barriers were complicit to an extent in helping the insurrectionists storm the Capitol. That is what I’ve mostly witnessed, and it became ‘inbred’. Maybe their training kicked in and they had been trying to back down before a mob instead of use physical violence. I don’t know and I sort of doubt that theory. But review of their training handbook could help. What’s clear is they are trained to deal with people at the highest levels of power on a daily basis and show respect and trained to deal with the people at the ‘lowest levels.’
All cops, though, are trained to exert force, and it was clear that that mob coming at them at the barriers was not Sunday tourists. Even though there was a lack of fortification and backups, the cops that were there still knew the mob that coming at them were animated Trumpsters, full of white supremacist anger. I’m still tinged by that. Situations are complex and reaction mixed in motivations.
Our view of the law officers comes from what we often see on viral videos of police shooting or threatening to shoot civilians, specifically blacks, on the streets and during traffic stops. In this regard, they are trained to use severe violence and force. They are not trained to confront them as they would with the Capitol Police would meet dignitaries, heads of state, senators.
Yes, I was glad to reflect and hear about the comments that the capital police actually suffered greatly. I was glad to see the videos and their testimony which only compounded the horror of the Insurrection. I got chance to reflect on the training and its profound effect on how the public is treated.
The true learning experience was witnessing how cops confront different socioeconomic levels of people. They are trained in one instance or on one extreme to be diplomatic, helpful and lower tensions if they should arise a meeting with general public. On the other hand, the police force in urban areas are trained to see threats and draw guns and immediately suspect people in poor areas violence, who are seen to be carrying guns and drugs, creating preconceived criminal intent. They are equipped with military training and instruments of conflict from military surplus.
It’s not about defunding the police. It is about the fundamental training they have on the streets to make them stop believing the public is hostile and dangerous. Specifically in poor neighborhoods. In suburban ones they go more lightly and less hostile, and I find I can chat with them amiably when I meet them in my cafe. Perhaps they don’t see dark intentions in me because I am a white man in middle-age in a tranquil suburb. But they do see bad intentions specifically in black ghettos constantly, and yes, most likely in poor white areas, too. Those intentions are formed on the perceptions training that they been given.
We need to tear down training and handbooks and teach them they are confronting humans at the highest levels of humanity even when those people now look like they are on the lowest rung.
