Authority run amok
One of the quintessential American "stories," according to Robert Reich, is "The Rot at the Top." At different times in history, "The Rot" meant different things: King George III, Robber Barons, "Special Interests...."
For part of my childhood (in the south during the civil rights movement) a prevalent "Rot" story was about "the establishment." Although I don't have a complete allergy to authority, anything that smacks of impersonal authority sets my teeth on edge. Always has...from the grade school gym coach who insisted I attend gym class every day even though I had been injured on his watch and was still splinted, to the office autocrat who tried to keep us from posting anything on the inside of our cubicle walls. [updated...the cubicle story was from 20 years ago. From my first day at Sun, I worked in an office.]
But today I saw one that was beyond the pale: a sheriff's deputy dumping a paraplegic out of a wheelchair (video) breaking two of his ribs. That struck me as the height of idiocy and arrogance...and to add insult to injury: (a) his arrest was on a traffic violation; (b) another deputy is seen on the tape, smiling as though he finds the whole thing amusing, and (c) the department seemed not to know about the incident despite it being caught on their own surveillance tape.
The deputy was placed on leave, and will probably take most of the blame for this. But we as a society are indebted to people who are willing to take law enforcement jobs--I told you I wasn't allergic to authority!--and I think a lot of the problem here could be traced to insufficient training and a poor work culture. That might be laid at the feet of the head honcho. (Then again, I can see an underfunded department having to decide between enough bodies, or enough training.) Sad, any way you look at it.
p.s Apologies if you can't see the video. I've complained to cnn.com several times along the lines of "YouTube video shows on my browser; why don't you support it?" but no joy. Tell all your friends to complain and let's see where we get.
Posted at 05:20PM Feb 12, 2008 by AceOfSpuds in General |