A Garrison State in Democratic Society-paul Takagi

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A Garrison State In "Democratic" SocietyAuthor(s): PAUL TAKAGIReviewed work(s):

Source: Crime and Social Justice, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 1974), pp. 27-33Published by: Social Justice/Global OptionsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29765885 .

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A Garrison StateIn "Democratic" Society*PAUL TAKAGI**

27

I.

This paper reports on a study of police officers killed inthe line of duty and civilianskilled by thepolice. The studywas originated in 1971 in reaction tonews reportingon theseveralmass media outlets at the local and national levels,which focused on FBI statistics indicating police officerswere being "assassinated" at an alarming rate. A policereporter for an educational television station alarmedviewers with a report that 125 law enforcement officers hadbeen killed in 1971, an increase of almost two and one-halftimes over 1963 when only 55 police officerswere killed inall of that year. Police killings of citizens, however, werereported as isolated events.Although the death of civiliansat thehands of police occurred from time to time,no newsanalyst attempted to show this as a national phenomenon.Sorel (1950) said people use words in selectiveways tocreate alarm. When a police officer kills a citizen, theofficial language is "deadly force," suggesting to theaudience that the use of forcewas legitimate.But when apolice officer iskilled, it is characterized as "violence," andtherefore, illegitimate. In this way, news, reporting thekilling of police officers in 1971, conjured the idea that theapparent increase in the killing of police officers wasunprecedented. Itwas seen as an attack caused in part bythe rising political militancy among revolutionary groups,and by the increasing race consciousness among people ofcolor venting their frustrations by attacking a visiblesymbol of authority.This interpretationwas entertained byofficials at the highest levels. President Nixon, inApril of1971, called upon police officials; and as subsequent eventsrevealed, other representatives from para-military organ?izations alsomet to deal with the "problem."

The approach by officialswas to consider the problemone of defense, and to search for the best technicalmeansand policies to protect their view of a "democratic"society. It was viewed as a military problem, and thefortification of the police under increased LEAA fundingand direction became a national policy (Goulden, 1970).One hundred and twenty-fivepolice officers died whileon duty during 1971; the actual rate of death, however, didnot increase because of the greater number of policeofficerswho were on duty during the same year. Even if thenumber of police personnel has increased two and one-halftimes since 1963, the rate of death among police officersshould not change. This is not said in an attempt tominimize the statistics that concern the officials.One couldargue that the rate of police deaths should decrease. Thepoint is to look at all the statistics, including previousstudies that actually show the killing of police officersoccurs at a relatively stable rate (Bristow, 1963; Robin,1963; and Cardarelli, 1968).The source of data is the FBI's own reports,which showan increase in the number of police officerskilled, from55in 1963 to 125 in 1971, along with an increase of over 50percent in the numbers of full-time authorized policepersonnel. The data presented in Chart 1 show that the rateof such homicides, while fluctuating from year to year,does not result in a trend either up or down over theperiod. The rate did peak nationally in 1967 with 29.9deaths per 100,000 law enforcement officers.This includesall ranks from patrolmen to higher officials and federalagents. Since patrolmen bear the greatest risk of beingkilled in the line of duty, theymay feel that FBI reportsshould be more detailed to accurately reflect the hazardsthey face.Reports to the FBI on thenumbers of police officersonduty and the numbers killed may not give a completepicture, since the agency has been only gradually achievinguniform reporting. Indeed, the number of reportingagencies increased since 1963. California, however, has hadfairly complete and uniform reporting throughout theperiod, and the death rates among California police areavailable for thewhole decade since 1960. They, too, showa peak in 1967, a year inwhich 12 officerswere killed.That did not set a trend,however, as the rate decreased inthe next two years.For the 86 officerswho were killed inCalifornia from1960 through 1970, the police apprehended 117 suspectsofwhom 55 percent were white, 25 percent Black, and 19percent Mexican-American. (This is the same percentagedistribution of ethnic/racial groups in California's prison

* The study was originally conducted by Philip Buell and PaulTakagi in the Summer of 1971, entitled "Code 984: Death by PoliceIntervention." The present version was considerably revised for thispublication.** Paul Takagi is an Associate Professor at the School ofCriminology, University of California, Berkeley.f I wish to express my appreciation to Herman Schwendinger,Virginia Engquist Grabiner, June Kress, and Tony Platt for theircomments and criticisms.?1974 by PaulTakagi

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28

CHARTpopulation.) At the time of thiswriting, 65 of the 117suspectswere convicted of eithermurder ormanslaughter,and 7 cases were still pending in court.W. H. Hutchins,Assistant Chief of the California Bureau of CriminalStatistics, noted in a paper delivered to the CaliforniaHomicide Investigators' Conference on March 5, 1971 thatthe great majority of homicidal deaths among policeofficers occurred in situations where robberies were inprogress or where robberswere fleeing arrest. But, notedHutchins, "the ambushing of officers, which has beenrelatively rare in the past, accounted for 25 percent ofpeace officers killed in 1970" (Hutchins, 1971).Mr. Hutchins isnot entirely correct when he reports thatthe majority of police officers killed were in situationsinvolving armed robberies. An earlier report by his Bureauof Criminal Statistics indicates: "... 63 percent of theseofficers died while conducting routine investigations,responding to disturbance calls and taking people intocustody. .." (Beattie, 1968:5). A special study on thedeaths of 39 California police officers (1960 through 1966)shows 35 of the 39 died of gunshot wounds, in someinstancesby theirown guns (ibid.: 11-14).

Klass, Richard J., 25-year-old patrolman, Daly CityPolice Department, killed May 6, 1966. Shot with hisown gun by an escapee with whom he was struggling.LeFebvre, Richard R., 23-year-old patrolman, LongBeach Police Department, killed August 15, 1965 at8:00 PM. Died at the scene of a riot when a shotgunin thehands of a brother officer discharged during astruggle.Ludlow, Donald E., a 26-year-old deputy sheriff, LosAngeles County, killed August 13, 1965 at 9:00 PM.Shot to death when brother officers' gun went offduring struggle at riot scene.Ross, Charles M., 31-year-old patrolman, RichmondPolice Department, killed February 9, 1964 at 1:00AM. Shot with his own gunwhile strugglingwith twodrunks.

The four cases above were classified as homicides. Todistinguish accidental death from homicide appears torequire considerable judgment among those compilingcrime statistics, and it is important to understand that thesejudgment classifications are included in the annual FBIreportson homicides of police officers.

It was noted earlier that the killing of police officerspeaked in 1967 with 29.9 deaths per 100,000 lawenforcement officers.Does thismean that law enforcementwork is one of extreme peril? Robin (1963) arguesotherwise:. . . there is reason to maintain that the popularconception of the dangerous nature of police workhas been exaggerated. Each occupation has its ownhazards. The main difference between police workand other occupations is that in the former there is acalculated risk . . .while other occupational hazardsare accidental and injuries usually self-inflicting(ibid.: 230).

Robin adjusts the death rate among police officers toinclude the accidental deaths (mostly from vehicularaccidents), and compares the death rate among themajoroccupational groups:

Table 1Occupational Fatalities per 100,000 Employees1955

Occupation Fatality Rate per 100,000Mining 93.58Construction Industry 75.81Agriculture 54.97Transportation 44.08Law Enforcement 32.76Public Utilities 14.98Finance, Gov., Service 14.18Manufacturing 12.08Trade 10.25Table adapted fromRobin (ibid.: Table 6).It is apparent that the occupational risks in lawenforcement are less dangerous than those in the severalmajor industries. Mining with 93.6 deaths per 100,000employees is almost three times riskier than lawenforcement,while construction work is two and one-halftimesmore dangerous, and agriculture and transportation



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?ERRATUM?CRIME AND SOCIAL JUSTICE #1 SPRING/SUMMER 972*TO BE INSERTED ON PAGE 29

1 1 1HOMICIDES CAUSED BY POLICE3.0-4 (United States)Black Males2.01

1.04White Males

1950 I960 W 1968CHART 3

Our apologies to Paul Takagi and our readers.



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291.0

-1-(-(-! HOMICIDESCAUSED Y POLICE.8_ _

o -6? ?o /0 /o* A ^ CALIF0RNIA___ _r_l .U /'^ \ _

1 2 '^>


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30deaths by legal interventionof police. In 1968, Black malesaccounted for 36 percent of arrests for themajor crimes;four years earlier, in 1964, Black arrestswere less than 30percent during a year when they suffered51 percent of thedeaths from police guns. Besides, it isnot certain that themajor crimes are a more accurate index of how frequentlyBlacks and whites commit crimes.Further, the threshold ofsuspicion is lower when a policeman encounters a Blackman, thus the arrest rate isbiased againstBlacks. No matterhow it is viewed, the death rate of Blacks is far out ofproportion to the situations thatmight justify it.Black people don't need these statistics to tell themwhat has been happening. The news gets around theneighborhood when someone is killed by the police. It ispart of a history. But white people, especiallypolicy-makers, don't live in those neighborhoods, and it isimportant that they explore the statistics further.Take the age groups where "desperate" criminals aremuch less likely to be found, the very young and the veryold.Male homicides by police during 1964-1968 were:

Table 2Number ofDeaths Rate PerMillion/YearlyWhite Black White Black

Ages 10-14 5 11 0.12 1.75Ages 65+ 5 14 0.14 4.76

In proportion to population, Black youngsters and oldmenhave been killed by police at a rate 15 to 30 times greaterthan that for whites of the same age. It is the actualexperiences behind statistics like these that suggest thatpolice have one trigger finger for whites and another forBlacks. The latest statistics, those for 1968, give no reasonforaltering that belief.Whereas our analysis covered national data on policekillings of private citizens, Robin (1963:229), utilizing thesame data for the years 1950 through 1960, examined theratesofBlack andwhite victimsby selected cities.

Table 3Rates ofBlack andWhite Decedents, by City

Black WhiteCity per 1,000,000 Black: White RatioAkron 16.1 2.7 5.8 to 1

Chicago 16.1 2.1 7.4 to 1Kansas City,Mo. 17.0 2.2 7.5 to 1Miami4.4 2.7 8.8 to 1Buffalo 7.1 .5 12.2 to 1Philadelphia 5.4 .2 21.9 to 1Boston 3.2 .1 25.2 to 1Milwaukee 13.5 .4 29.5 to 1

In absolute numbers, Chicago police accounted for 54.6percent of the 350 police slayings of citizens in the eightcities; the mean annual rate, however, was highest forMiami, with Chicago second. The two citieswith the lowestpolice "justifiable homicide" rate,Boston andMilwaukee,killed Blacks in proportion to whites at a ratio of 25 to 29timeshigher.A more detailed analysis of police killing of privatecitizens was conducted by Robin for the city ofPhiladelphia. He reports:Thirty of the 32 cases (28 were Black victims) weredisposed of by the medical examiner, who at theinquest exonerated the officers involved in thekillings on the grounds that death was due tojustifiable homicide. In the two remaining cases theofficerswere held for the grand jury, indicted, triedby a jury, and found not guilty (ibid.:226).

Black citizens have long argued that the police arecommitting genocide on Black people, and there isincreasing evidence that these killings are indeed murder,and that real justice is rarely if ever carried out in thisprocess. Knoohuizen, et. al. (1972) conducted a study ofChicago police killing of citizens, and provided furthercredence to the claim that police are murdering Blackcitizens. In their report, Knoohuizen and associatesexamined the incidents as reported by the police, thereports of the coroner's office, and testimonyor statementsby credible eyewitnesses. In Table 15 they summarizedtheir findingsfromwhich we extracted three cases.

Case 1. The victim was Linda Anderson. Policeaction resulting in her death was ruled justifiablehomicide because, according to police reports, shewas killed accidentally during attempt to gainentrance to her apartment by shooting the lock offthe door. The partner of the officer,and independentwitnesses, corroborated the police officer's version.An independent investigation revealed that the officerused a shotgun standing four feet from the door, didnot warn the occupant of impending shot, and missedthe lock completely.Case 2: The victim was Raymond Jones. Policeaction was ruled excusable because police officers didnot strike the deceased and were only using theamount of force necessary to bring the suspect underarrest. Seven of 9 officers involved in the incidenttestified and confirmed each other's story. The reportof the Coroner's pathologist, however, revealed thatMr. Jones was age 31 and in good health. He was alsounarmed. The use of excessive force was impliedwhen 9 police officers cannot subdue a suspectwithout causing his death.Case 3. The victim was Charles Cox. The policereport did not offer a justification or an excuseclaiming the victim died from drug overdose ratherthan use of police force. Further reports from thepolice indicate blood analysis revealed some drugs inthe victim's body. One of the arrestingofficers andone of the officers in charge of the lock-up bothtestified that the victim appeared all rightwhen intheircharge.A pathologist testifiedon thebasis of hisexamination of the body thatCox died of blows tothe head.



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Knoohuizen and associates conclude from their nalysis thatin 28 of the 76 cases inwhich civilianswere killed at thehands of the Chicago police, therewas substantial evidenceof police misconduct; and in 10 of the 76 cases, therewassubstantial evidence of criminal liability formanslaughterormurder (ibid.:61).Despite grand jury findings in those instances wherepolice officers are held criminally liable, the courts havebeen reluctant to proceed with prosecution. All too often,suchmatters are thrown out of court or juries return theverdict of not guilty. For example, Superior Court JudgeRoss G. Tharp of San Diego County dismissed involuntarymanslaughter charges against a California Highwaypatrolman indicted in the fatal shootings of an unarmed16-year-old boy. According to police reports,Roland R.Thomas was shot by Officer Nelander following a highspeed chase in an allegedly stolen car. The car ran off theroad, and Thomas appeared to reach toward his pocket atwhich point theofficer firedhis gun. In dismissing the case,Judge Tharp observed: "I think the officer deserves acommendation for doing his duty rather than standingtrial."

The only recent cases inwhich police officerswere heldaccountable forkilling civilianswere shown on a recent TVprogram (Owen Marshall, ABC, Saturday, March 2, 1974),in addition to the highly publicized case in Texas where a12-year-oldMexican-American youngster was shot whileunder custody in a police car. The circumstances in thelatter case were so gross that a dismissal was out of thequestion. The court, however, sentenced the officer to aprison termof 5 years in a state where sentences of 1,000years for lesser crimes are not uncommon.

31IV.

Authorities have been tryingto combat what they viewto be a rash of attacks on police, to the neglect of all thedata that bear on the problem-a problem inwhich otherlives are involved.The problem has existed all along; at leastsince 1950, and there is reason to believe fordecades beforethat, Black people have been killed by the police at atragically disproportionate rate, beyond the bounds ofanything thatwould justify it.

Open warfare between thepolice and the citizenrymightbe one of the outcomes. Two recent attacks upon policestation houses, one by a bomb and the other by shotgunwielding assailants resulting in the death of two policeofficers, are indicative. In the latter killing, the gunmanthrust shotgun through the speakinghole of a bullet proofglass shield separating the desk sergeant from the public.Portions of the police station house were protected bycyclone fencing. The wall of isolation surrounding thepolice is not only social and psychological, but physical,and thebreaking down of thesewalls was considered by theNational Crime Commission to be the single mostimportant priority. Yet the federal government inappropriating billions of dollars for the Law EnforcementAssistance Administration program earmarked the fundsprimarily for the fortification of the police, therebycontributing to their isolation.Currently, the concept of citizen participation is beingstressed by the LEAA. The support the police get fromsome citizens' groups actually increases the isolation ofpolice fromminority communities. In Oakland, California,such a group, called Citizens for Law and Order, has aprogram of needling judges for their "soft" handling ofcriminal cases, firing roadsides at the press, television andradio, and appearing before local governmental bodies topromote support for the police and more "discipline" inschools. Programs like these are based on the belief thatincreasing the penalty for crime, increasing the powers ofthe police, and invoking police coercion of the citizenrywill result in law and order.Other citizens' groups have encouraged the introductionof reforms. People have worked on a variety of schemessuch as Civilian Review Boards, psychological testing andscreening of police candidates, human relations training,police community relations, racially integrated patrol units,and efforts to increase the hiring of Black and otherminority officers.To the extent that theywork to improveonly the "image" of police, they fail because theproblemsgo much deeper. And to a major extent, they fail becausepolicemen, most of themwillingly and others unknowingly,are used as the front line tomaintain the social injusticesinherent in other institutions and branches of government.Perhaps the only immediate solution at this time is todisarm the police. Observers have noted that provinces inAustralia where the police are unarmed have amuch lowerrate of attacks upon the police, compared to neighboringprovinces where the police are armed, and the corollaryobservation, a lower rateof police misconduct.Disarming the police in the United States willundoubtedly lower the rate of police killingsof civilians; itdoes not, however, get at the causes of police misconduct,



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to almost double that after thewar, there is some basis tosuspect that the police killing of Black citizens ispunishment to control a surplus labor population..The labor surplus analysis, however, does not explain thesudden increase in police killing of civilians beginningaround 1962. Did the Civil Rights movement in housing,education, and employment, and more specifically, the

militancy of aMalcolm X, and the liberationmovements inThirdWorld nations around theworld, re-definethe role ofthe police? Did finance imperialism in the form ofmulti-national corporations beginning about this timecreate an un-noticed social dislocation? Why do the policekill civilians at amuch higher rate in some cities comparedto others, and why do they kill Blacks at adisproportionately higher ratio in cities like Boston andMilwaukee? Why do California police, presumed to behighly professional, kill civilians at a rate 60 percent higherthan the nation as awhole? We are not able to answer thesequestions.We must, however, pause for a moment, and considerwhat is happening to us. We know that authorized policepersonnel in states likeCalifornia has been increasingat therate of 5 to 6 percent compared to an annual populationincrease of less than two and one-half percent. In 1960there were 22,783 police officers; in 1972 there were51,909. If the rate of increase continues, California willhave at the turnof the 21st century an estimated 180,000police officers, an equivalent of 10military divisions. Is itnot true that thegrowth in the instrumentsof coercion andpunishment is the inevitable consequence of thewealth of anation that isbased upon theft?America ismoving more and more rapidly towards agarrison state, and soon we will not find solace by repeatingto ourselves: "Ours is a democratic society."

FOOTNOTES1. The ideas in this section are not original. They come fromFourier, Godwin, Proudhon, Marx, Kropotkin, and others.

REFERENCES

Beattie, Ronald H.1968 "California Peace Officers Killed 1960-66." Bureau ofCriminal Statistics, Department of Justice, State ofCalifornia (September).

Bristow, Allen P.1963 "Police Officer Shootings: A Tactical Evaluation." TheJournal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science54.Cardarelli, Albert P.1968 "An Analysis of Police Killed by Criminal Action:1961-1963." The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology,and Police Science 59.Goulden, Joseph1970 "The Cops Hit the Jackpot." The Nation (November).

33Hutchins, W. H.1971 "Criminal Homicides of California Peace Officers,1960-1970." A report delivered before the CaliforniaHomicide Investigators' Conference, Los Angeles, March5.Knoohuizen, Ralph, Richard P. Fahey, and Deborah J. Palmer1972 The Police arid Their Use of Fatal Force in Chicago.Chicago Law Enforcement Study Group.President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration ofJustice

1967 Task Force Report: The Police. Washington, D.C.: U.S.Government Printing Office.Robin, Gerald D.1963 "Justifiable Homicide by Police Officers." The Journal ofCriminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 54.Rusche, Georg and Otto Kirchheimer1968 Punishment and Social Structure. New York: Russell andRussell.Sorel, G.1950 Reflections on Violence. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press.Sweezy, Paul M., Harry Magdoff and Leo Huberman1971 "Economic Stagnation and Stagnation of Economics."Monthly Review 22 (April).

SISTER

O sister - my half, imust admit,i did you wrong, imisled you,i kept you inferior, i always hurt you,iput you in the corner, a symbol for sex,but i didn't see youforwhat you really areO sister - your beauty - i overlooked, yourauthenticity ? imisjudged, your sincerityi played on, your brightness - i covered,your heart - i cheated . . .

0 sister - i need you, Pleaseforgive me .. .1see - you saw, ihear - you heard,the truth - i've learned,Our struggle is one,for that is our deed

Forward with the struggleBoth sisters and brothers . . .

-Attica Brother

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A Garrison State in Democratic Society-paul Takagi