2011: Year of the cop

• pepper-spray-cop

  http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/pepper-spray-cop.jpeg

• bologna4

  http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bologna4.jpeg

2011 was a year of firsts—or at least first-in-a-long-times. But a decade from now when we look back at the year, the image above will almost surely be one of the few that come to mind.

Not since Rodney King’s 1991 beating by the LAPD and the riots that followed the 1992 police acquittal have cops played such a central role in American culture.

For the first time in a decade this year—since the September 11 attacks—the perils that seemed to threaten the fabric of American life came from within instead of without. With Osama gone and 9/11 receding into history, increasingly Americans worry that dysfunction within our society may threaten the American dream, more so than terrorists abroad.

Fittingly, the last time America’s public safety professionals factored so strongly into the American narrative was on 9/11—as heroes. 9/11 changed the way we thought about firefighters—and for a moment, even cops.

Not this year. This year the cop returned as the authoritative, menacing threat—the evil overlord. From Anthony Bologna‘s September 14 attack in New York to Lt. John Pike’s display of heroism above at UC Davis on November 21, cops rode a river of pepper spray to headlines that shocked the nation.

There was also something sadistic about their attacks: they were almost all against people who were not only demonstrating peacefully, but were going out of their way to be passive and refuse confrontation.

One area where the Occupy movement departed from from previous generations’ conflicts was that unlike the tensions of the Vietnam era or the LA race riots of the 90s, Occupy wasn’t a movement to change the culture from the bottom up—it sought to limit the unfairness concentrated at the top for the benefit of the 99%, which almost prototypically includes cops. The sadism of the 2011 cop was that not just that he was attacking a peaceful protester, but that he was attacking a peaceful protester who was protesting on his behalf.

This was the point retired Philadelphia police captain Ray Lewis made when he was arrested protesting at Zuccotti Park in New York: “All the cops are just workers for the one percent, and they don’t even realize they’re being exploited,” he said.

When he sent the first email that became the seed of Occupy Wall Street, Adbusters founder Kalle Lasn commented, “America needs its own Tahrir.” When the Tahrir Square protests captured the attention of Egypt and the world, the Egyptian military and police took a look at what was going on and decided to side with the people. That could have happened in New York, Berkeley, UC Davis, Los Angeles, and DC. But it didn’t. Instead in 2011 cops hung up whatever vestige of heroism they’d earned on 9/11 and once again became officious foot soldiers of the few in power, ready to beat down the many should they try to claw back too much equity toward what was once the great American middle class.

Hey, there’s always next year.