It's not the guns, it's the culture

So two days ago two American policemen shot and killed a boy carrying a plastic toy gun. The policemen were probably all trigger happy because of the recent Nevada school shooting where a pupil went on a shooting spree, thinking that this boy was also on his way to do something similar.

There is something really out of whack in America. I mentioned at the beginning of the year about America's "gun-threat": the case of a kindergarten kid getting in trouble for blowing bubbles with a toy bubble "gun", a 6-year old boy getting suspended for making a "gun gesture" with his fingers, and a fifth grader getting in trouble for having a paper "gun".

Now I'm not trying to make light of the recent school shootings, but let's get it clear -- it is not because of guns. There are many countries in the world with lots of access to guns, yet kids don't go on shooting sprees.  Take South Africa for instance, where illegal guns are rampant, but I can't remember any case of a mass killing by a pupil. In fact, mass killings are quite uncommon in South Africa -- a country infamous for its high violent crime rate. Or think of Switzerland. Time Magazine reports:

Switzerland trails behind only the U.S, Yemen and Serbia in the number of guns per capita; between 2.3 million and 4.5 million military and private firearms are estimated to be in circulation in a country of only 8 million people. Yet, despite the prevalence of guns, the violent-crime rate is low: government figures show about 0.5 gun homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010. By comparison, the U.S rate in the same year was about 5 firearm killings per 100,000 people, according to a 2011 U.N. report.

These killing sprees are therefore not a gun thing. It is, it would seem, a culture thing. Something else is at play in America. Possibly a culture of violence.

The philosopher John Kozy explains it as follows in his essay Violence: The American Way of Live:

The United States of America was conceived and nurtured by violence.
Americans not only engage in violence, they are entertained by it.
Killing takes place in America at an average of 87 times each day. Going to war in Afghanistan is less dangerous than living in Chicago.
The Romans went to the Coliseum to watch people being killed. In major cities, Americans just look out their windows. Baseball, once America’s national game, a benign, soporific sport, has been replaced by football which is so violent it destroys the brains of those who play it. Violent films, euphemized as action flicks, dominate our motion picture theatres and television sets. Our children play killing video games.
So do you really believe that gun control will miraculously make America into a tranquil nation? Do you really believe that outlawing products and practices will make Americans peace loving? A culture cannot be changed by laws, change requires a sustained effort over several generations. Are Americans  up to the task?

Sorry to give the spoiler to his essay, but Kozy doubts that Americans can change such a deeply ingrained culture. It just worries me, though, because the USA is a cultural trendsetter and their most prominent export is pop-culture.

And the increased police brutality is scaring me. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?!

Such Brave Macho Policemen

I remember when I was in school—probably the early years of high school—we had to give a presentation about the occupation we wanted to pursue one day. I wanted to be a nano-engineer. My best friend at the time, Keith McKenzie, wanted to be a microbiologist. “Small things interest great minds,” he used to say and one doesn’t get much smaller than microbiology and nano-engineering.


But there was a clear pattern I recognized in what the other boys wanted to be, particularly the bullies, delinquents, and the generally scholastically inept boys: they wanted to be policemen. Reading the news, I have to conclude that a noticeable percentage of the type of people that goes into the police force is indeed these types of people—people driven by their lust for power over others, people that want to be in positions of authority in order to continue their bullying.

Image Source

Take these examples from the news: In England police tasered a blind man, in America an 8-month pregnant woman was tasared after using expletives towards a cop, and lets not forget the cop that kicked a pregnant women recently after she complained when her sibling got tasered. Oh, and did you hear about the man that got tasered for having a seizure?! The police commanded him to keep still, but having a seizure attack he was obviously not able to do so, so they just went ahead and electricuted him. The victim (and I'm using the word "victim" deliberately) suffered a heart attack and brain damage from this ordeal. Wow these are such tough strong manly men. They taser blind people, the pregnant, and the sick. They really make me feel safe now! Thank you brave Mr. Policeman for protecting me from those dangerous blind, pregant, and physically ill people! (Pardon my sarcasm, but this is really getting to me.)

Then there are all the police brutality towards protestors around the world (e.g. Greece, Egypt, Kuwait, Kosovo, Indonesia, Multan, and many other places). South Africa, my country of origin, has made the headlines recently over police brutality during a protest by miners that turned violent. (Here is a synopsis of the mining unrest in South Africa; and here is an overview of police brutality in the South African context.)

There is much that can be said about police brutality—there are many contextual factors that should be kept in mind. I'm not saying that police ought not at times opt for a more hands-on, i.e. violent, option. However, I honestly think that one variable that cannot be ignored is that a significant percentage of the people attracted to this career is not in it because they have a profound sense of justice and wish to keep the peace, but rather because they have a power fetish and get off from exerting their authority over others.