Sunday, March 11, 2012
Mayant on Professional Policing and Public Misconceptions
This clip is taken from Se7en, a popular 1995 crime thriller movie starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. The movie takes place in a city falling apart because of high crime rates and centers on the investigation of a sadistic serial killer. David Mills (Brad Pitt) is a new, idealistic, and ambitious detective that has just moved into the city and transferred into the department. He is partnered with William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a veteran detective that is soon-to-be retired. The two police homicide detectives investigate the string of murders, but their differing views and experiences are often shown in opposition to each other.
I chose this clip because I think it illustrates two misconceptions that professional policing has led the public to believe. In class, we talked about how professional policing has saturated our mind set and our emotional state to the point where it acts as a cultural catalyst for public perceptions. It dominates all other styles of police organization and methods and has become a popular public icon that causes us to understand law enforcement misleadingly.
The first misconception centers on the fact that the purpose of professional policing is to suppress and control crime. This gives the impression that the police are the sole agents to handle crime and that crime involves atrocious, brutal, and unimaginable activities. This leads to two effects. The first is that the public interprets this view in one of two ways. The first is that they divorce themselves from any sense of social responsibility as a citizen. In the movie clip, Somerset says they “embrace and nurture apathy as if it were a virtue” because they feel detached from the process. The second is that they put the police under stricter scrutiny and hold them more accountable for high crime rates.
However, the handfuls that do not do this follow the second effect: that is, it causes police agents, like David Mills, to have a glorified picture of what the police do. It makes them enter the police force to be “the hero” or “the champion”. Thus, the idea of professional policing has a profound effect on our emotional cognition and the way we choose to see the police as a whole.
This leads to a second misconception that is more directly drawn from the clip. Somerset says that if they catch the serial killer and he ends up “being the devil himself” then it “might live up to [their] expectations”. He makes an important point: people have become trained to categorize criminals as morally depraved, devilish, and unfix-able individuals. They have become outliers in our society and are seen as “mentally ill” and “crazy”. Rehabilitation and social services are viewed as useless or a waste of time and money because the public perceives criminals as irrational and not understandable. This public separation comes from the idea that professional policing needs to be aggressive in order to “fight crime”. The more aggression, the less sympathy and relevance people find for those that commit crimes.
While the clip diverges onto other issues, I think it demonstrates the role professional policing has in our culture and the way people view the police overall.
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I think the clip Mayant chose from Se7en is extremely interesting at presenting two perspectives on policing. As Mayant said: "David Mills (Brad Pitt) is a new, idealistic, and ambitious detective that has just moved into the city and transferred into the department. He is partnered with William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a veteran detective that is soon-to-be retired" and I see this partnership as an interesting reflection on the situation in Eldorado.
ReplyDeleteIn Eldorado, the police department has many veterans who are approaching retirement (just like William Somerset in the movie) and they are planning to invest in new law enforcement by hiring a new chief to "modernize" the police department. As William points out in the clip, David wants to be a hero and that's not what the people want and therefore in Eldorado if they hire a new police force who have the same goals then they could end up isolating the public instead of tackling crime in partnership with them. A partnership between the police and the public would be extremely beneficial for issues such as the Occupy Wall Street encampments in Oakville and therefore the police need to be careful not to isolate the public by having a completely new and modern police force.
RD
Professional policing has become ingrained and persistent in the consciousness of the American public, as well as in the administrators themselves, partly because media (film, tv, news, etc.) and politics have taken advantage of and/or perpetuated a culture of fear in which crime is model problem of government and society. In accordance with the ideas of Foucault and Durkheim, as a modern society, ours should have evolved past retributive, repressive justice. More developed societies are supposedly inclined to mete out more restitutive justice and rehabilitate offenders, because as society becomes more complex and functions through mutual interdependence, there is greater efficiency in instilling self-discipline among the population (so that conformity to law and social order is a normative undertaking) and correcting the behavior of those who do deviate so that they may become productive members (consumers?) of society again, instead of plainly punishing bodies. However, because insecurities are framed in popular discourse and are played on by the media and political leaders, the mainstream “community” of Americans has become increasingly fearful of and/or averse towards violent predators, welfare queens, and illegal aliens. Such an environment provides rationalization for the increasingly carceral, penal nature of the state and pervasive surveillance, as well as part of the persistent pull of the professional policing style in the collective consciousness. Because “people have become trained to categorize criminals as morally depraved, devilish, and unfix-able individuals,” people favor aggressive crime suppression and punishment over rehabilitation.
ReplyDeleteOn that note, in Eldorado, it would probably be better to deal with the homeless and sex workers near the commercial district not by punishing and/or displacing them, but by rehabilitating them- helping them get their lives back on track through public housing and health and social welfare services, in accordance with the Housing First and Harm Reduction solutions described in "Banished."
In Oakville, the notion that public law enforcement is the champion and primary locus of policing might be a misconception, since local communities/ neighborhoods could have their own forms of policing and social organization, and these may have an even stronger hold on residents. Also, because of the noted intensified scrutiny of professional public police officers, and widespread knowledge that they are supposed to suppress crime, failures to answer calls and improve quality of life in crime afflicted areas- deficiencies in meeting expectations- generates doubts and disillusionment about the police, therefore potentially creating a crisis of legitimacy. This might further burden police with possibilities of diminished community cooperation (increased apathy) and challenges to authority, especially with the Oakville activists and Occupy Movement instigating resistance.
- C. Tiong
I do believe that many individuals perceive professional policing to be glamorous and righteous, but for every individual who sees it as such there are probably ten more people from high risk backgrounds who distrust and have contempt for the police because they have been aculturated into this belief. I think that in the 21st century, movies and shows about crime only help to reinforce the positive image people have of the police, if they already support public law enforcement.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, violent video games and movies reinforce positive images people have about the glamor of engaging in organized crime. I have seen several movies that take place in communities similar to Oakville that portray actively violent gangs or street criminals as being justified in their actions.
ALLISON B.
In Eldorado and the surrounding cities, professional policing is probably a very common type of policing. However, the cities might benefit from different perspectives of policing, as long as they are willing to look at different perspectives. Even with the different problems that each city faces, using different policing styles could benefit the citizenry, which is why hybrid policing types are so common.
ReplyDeleteA Rice
The clip from Se7en is really great at highlighting how different the reality of professional policing is from the public's perception of it. I think part of the reason for the public's romanticized version of professional policing is because in the media police officers are portrayed as epic heroes getting rid of the bad guys and defending the city from evil. As the clip conveys, this idea not only invades the minds of the citizens, but it also influences up and coming cops, who may sign up for the job because of the way it is glorified in the media. As we have learned in this class so far, there is much more involved in policing than just fighting crime and locking up criminals. Also, not everyone sees the police as the heroes they are made out to be in movies and TV shows, which is especially apparent in looking at the communities in El Dorado, specifically Oakville. Many of the citizens in Oakville have been turned off by the actions of the police officers, especially because they are often on the receiving end of aggressive policing tactics.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the second point Mayant makes about people perceiving all criminals as depraved, crazy vagrants is especially relevant to Oakville, which has a history of violence. The aggressive policing strategies used on the residents of Oakville may be a way of law enforcement to respond to this public demand for justice, however, they end up targeting many innocent people.
Side note: if anyone hasn't seen the movie Se7en they should watch it because its fantastic.
KC
I’m not going to lie, when I think about policing, most of the time I picture professional policing. We’ve already covered its allure in class – it provides the glamour, fame, and excitement police officers seek. My personal misconception is fueled largely by media representation of law enforcement as protectors and heroes (CSI, Law and Order, Criminal Minds). I think I often forget that they are people too. However, I do think that there is a way for professional policing to adopt alternative methods (for example, more of a community-style policing) to better engage the citizens. I think what you said about citizens being apathetic and feeling detached from the process is very true, but I think it has a lot to do with American society in general and the laws within the U.S. American society is individual-centric. This is reflected in the legal system, as for example in the American Bystander Rule. Under the American Bystander Rule, you have no legal duty to rescue or call for help to aid someone who's in danger even if helping poses no risk whatsoever to the potential rescuer and even if it’s happening right in front of your eyes. This is what happened in the instance where a girl was gang raped outside of a high school in Richmond and people just stood there watching without offering any help. In my opinion, laws need to change to help clear up misconceptions about professional policing and empower citizens to tap into their responsibilities.
ReplyDeleteThe pull of professional policing is also seen in the Eldorado Police Department. The department aims to ‘modernize’ and handle ‘new problems,’ phrases which suggest that it aims to professionalize. As we talked about in class today, professionalization means increased use of technology, which can be detrimental for both the law enforcement agent and the citizen because of the distance it places between them. The new recruits for the Eldorado Police Department should borrow some ideas from the Berkeley PD and work alongside a Mental Illness Crisis Unit to help simultaneously provoke understanding about certain crimes and lessen stereotypes about criminals and police officers.
P.S. I want to watch that movie! ☺
-Yana P.
03/13/2012
Unfortunately the clip shows the two prevailing diverse opinions about public policing. Many of us do see the police as an elite crime fighting organization, who actively suppress crime behind the scene so they we can safely go about our day to day lives. However this public police fantasy is rarely true, the jobs of public police can vary greatly from simply patrolling the beat to hunting murderers.
ReplyDeleteThe styles and roles of the police may vary depending on the area which it is in charge of. A suburban police patrol may involve telling kids not to ride in the road and assisting elderly whilst a patrol in a more crime stricken area may involve anything from graffiti prevention to a major drug operation. In a city such as Eldorado it is important that the police in charge of this area are aware of how the area is changing and adapt the police force to match the area.
Siobhan L
As we learned in lecture, it is pretty true that we view professional policing as the main means of keeping order. This clip does show how the views of policing within law enforcement officials and the public is pretty different. The public sees police as fighting crime and helping to reduce it while the police, although not all, see crime as a never ending fight. The public may see criminals as villains who are very different from us, but the police see them as regular people. Because these criminals are also just regular people like the rest of us, everyone has the potential of becoming a criminal. Therefore, public policing seems to be something that only deals with the problem that rises, but not with the cause of it.
ReplyDeleteJ.T.
Although I'm a fan of this film and police dramas in general, I think this movie-and this clip specifically-play into the public perception of professional policing, that they are heros and somehow supposed to save "us" as the public from morally "depraved" crimes such as serial murders. The heinousness of the crime and the heroism of the cop is somehow supposed to reinforce each other, as if the more horrendous the crime, the more heroic the cop and there is always the seasoned (often jaded) veteran with the young idealistic "rookie" cop.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying it doesn't make for great entertainment or even that serial murderers aren't to be made examples of but I am saying that these stereotypes reinforce our constructs of how the police should behave, who are victims and who are perpetrators of crime. It's a Postmodern Dragnet. As I said, great entertainment but it reinforces this false dichotomy that we seem to hunger for as a public between a perceived evil and a benevolent force for good. Those forces of "good" and "evil" are inside us and all around us as the culture that projects these ideals onto our police force.
WFA
This clip does in fact depict the idea of professional policing and our outlook on the criminal compared to the cop. One idea that i found most interesting was when you stated that police "have become trained to categorize criminals as morally depraved, devilish, and unfix-able individuals". I agree with his belief and find that it in turn contradicts the whole purpose of law inforcement and correctional facilities. Hence the term, correctional, meaning to fix, usually when it is apparent that something is wrong. Then why might it be that they feel that criminals are non-correctable and rehabilitation is pointless. I beleive that this all ties into the citizen agent narrative, in which law enforcement use their own life situations to determine the worthy or unworthy criminal.
ReplyDelete