I just checked the news to see what had “bumped in the night” regarding the George Floyd protests nationwide and watched several news clips using the words “A Few Bad Apples in the Police” to explain what has happened these last days and nights. The ‘bad apple theory’ has been around for years and in this report which premiered Sep 5, 2019 is Calling BS on the ‘Bad Apples’ Theory of Police Misconduct – it is more than a few bad apples, it is a systemic issue in American culture. What is the deep systemic issue?
I first heard about the “bad apple idea” in showing my management classes this report on The Corporation (2003), where many of our major corporations are identified as ‘bad apples’. Stop and think, who are the major players in creating and distributing wealth in America – you got it, it is the Corporation where we need to begin examining the systemic issues of what is now happening in America. These are the guys and gals that should be strung-up, stripped of their furs, jewels, and BMWs.
Frontline’s Policing the Police (full film) reposted on May 30, 2020 proposes “How to change a troubled police force? It presents a look inside a police department being forced to reform, in Frontline’s 2016 documentary. “Policing the Police” offers an up-close look at police reform efforts in Newark, NJ, after the force was found to have engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional stops, searches and arrests of black residents. This 2016 film examines the difficulties of fixing a broken relationship between the police and the community, which is quite obvious by last week’s behaviors has not been accomplished.
All of this past week’s turmoil has me remembering earlier posts on the work of Jeremy Rifkin’s investigation into the evolution of empathy in shaping the development of our society (What does it mean to be a Revolutionary? February 2, 2016). It seems that our American Police Corporation has not made an attempt to hire political, social, ethical adviser Rifkin to investigate the deep evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our societal development. In the days at UND CUHK, NTU, UIBE, NDSU, Concordia, and UMary The Empathic Civilisation was at the center of our teaching pedagogy. However, it seems that we are now Breaking Bad – Really Bad. sascherling