Authoritarianism and race.

Editor,

Black males are treated brutally by police in the USA because black males are perceived across American society as criminals. Black males are stopped, harassed, intimidated, and humiliated by police again and again just for being who they are, and they are arrested for petty infractions for which white males are scolded and let go.

There is also an insidious authoritarianism pervading American society since corporations have taken it over.

It used to be that civil society made the rules in the USA, but now corporations make their own rules, have their own private security forces, and when broader societal norms are in question, buy lawmakers to force American compliance with corporations' dictates.

Protesters exercising freedom of assembly and speech, as with Occupy, are attacked violently by militarized police, the net effect being that police do not see themselves as protecting the communities they serve but as protecting some vague notion of order that serves the authoritarian interests of the corporations.

Mix this authoritarian attitude with race, and you have police turning to physical violence and brandishing their guns to control black males who do not immediately become completely submissive to police commands, for the most part issued over trivia.

You can't rule a society for long with force. Without the consent of the governed, rebellion is the only possibility.

Re: "Body Cameras Worn by Police Officers Are No ‘Safeguard of Truth,’ Experts Say" (12/7/2014)