ABSTRACT
There is much concern and consternation within America today concerning what many perceive to be the excessive use of force by law enforcement personnel especially when encountering threatening, yet unarmed, suspects, usually minority males. Part of this problem can be traced to the type of equipment available to law enforcement agencies, notably the increased firepower of modern military-style weapons. Also pertinent to this discussion is the continued undercurrent of racial/ethnic, sectarian, and class biases that are inherent in a complex multicultural environment such as the United States. Add to this the proliferation of highcapacity handguns and assault rifles within the general population, a situation worsened within the twenty-first century by Second Amendment advocates such as the National Rifle Association. While better training in the use of nonlethal weapons is a desired outcome for the prevention of the advent of deadly force, the disharmonious relations existing between law enforcement and those perceived by the police to be “troublemakers”
also need to be addressed. A common social-psychological principle is that reciprocal antagonism involving members of polarized groups tends to fuel mutual antipathy. Georg Simmel explained this phenomenon as such: “Out-group hostility increases in-group cohesion.”1 Consequently, in divided societies where there this sense of polarized antagonism prevails, such as between white police officer and minority young-adult males, an otherwise minor incident can mushroom into a serious crisis. These situations often lead to elevated emotional states among those involved in the altercation, kicking in the participant’s autonomic reactions of the sympathetic nervous system. This results in an increased adrenal response that, at this stage, is difficult to regulate with a rational override, hence resulting in mutual “fight or flight” responses where the better-armed party usually prevails-such as a police officer emptying his/her weapon at the “perceived” threat. This phenomenon is clearly illustrated with the November 29, 2012 Cleveland, Ohio case in which more than 100 police officers in 60 cruisers chased two unarmed blacks, because their car backfiring was mistaken for gunfire, for 22 miles ending when the car stopped and 12 officers on the scene fired 137 shots into the vehicle with one officer, Michael Brelo, firing 49 of those bullets, 15 while standing on the car’s hood firing directly at the black male and female through the windshield. Brelo was subsequently charged with voluntary manslaughter but acquitted by a judge at his trial in May 2015. Although the United States now is known for its highly decentralized law enforcement apparatus, there is a long history of the symbiotic relationship between the military and police in enforcing U.S. laws. In addressing these issues we need to look at the interactions between the military and police in American society from its colonial roots to the present day situation.
