Other communities have grappled with the methodology of their police force and I ran across this article published in the FBI: Law Enforcement Bulletin. Notably, they place the burden upon the leadership of the police force to enact a respectable law enforcement culture and interaction with the public.
In Historical Capitalism, Immanual Wallerstein pointed out, “The overt use of force by the state-machinery to control the internal work-force, a costly and destabalizing technique, is more often the sign of its weakness than its strength.”(3) This raises the question, “Is the overt use of force by a police officer a sign of weakness?” The answer seems to be an unequivocal “yes.”
Overt use of force by a police organization serves as a sign of weakness in management, in first-line supervision, and in training. More importantly, however, it displays a weakness on the part of law enforcement to understand the fundamental issues relating to police responsibility and the use of force.
This makes the stoic refusal of the city to issue even a public statement or a send a word of sympathy to the Foster family seem even more complicit, guilt by omission. The city has in essence condoned the injury to Carl Foster.
