By Jeff McCaddon
Copyright Jeff McCaddon, April 26th, 2021. All Rights Reserved.
The following litany of Assembly Bills have stacked up in Sacramento to severely limit the powers of Law Enforcement in California:
Assembly Bill 66 restricts Police from using tear-gas, rubber-bullets and other less than lethal force against demonstrators.
Assembly Bill 655 will ban all Law Enforcement Officers affiliated with government defined “Hate Groups.”
Assembly Bill 731 will bring an end to “Qualified Immunity” which shields Officers from frivolous civil lawsuits.
Senate Bill 776 opens records of police misconduct or allegations of violence which will be retained indefinitely under the California Public Records Act.
Assembly Bill 1197 bans the use of carotid choke-holds by Law Enforcement Officers.
Assembly Bill 1506 requires investigation by a California State Prosecutor in all cases concerning law enforcement activity resulting in death.
If we are to believe everything that the mainstream and social media say, there are only bad cops. It is an unfortunate fact that this biased coverage has skewed the perception of our society to believe that more unarmed black males are killed by police than in vehicular accidents. The statistical facts contradict this ridiculous perception pushed by media. In 2020, 27 unarmed black males were killed by Law Enforcement, 18 of which were shot. In almost all instances, the victim was fighting with the officer or attempting to gain control of the officer’s firearm. The other deaths were the result of tragic mistakes. The one exception being the recent Chauvin case which resulted in a murder conviction. Chauvin’s case is destined to be overturned for retrial due to the Judge’s failure to sequester jurors from media interference during the trial, including constant coverage of threats from Antifa and the Black Lives Matter Movement of violent public unrest, along with broadcasted warnings from prominent politicians of mayhem on the streets if Chauvin was not found guilty on all charges.
Nobody is above the law. Internal investigations leading to criminal charges are the common process for addressing such charges against law enforcement officers, up-to and including District Attorney referral, due-process and a day in court. Should a conviction ensue, then the officer would face criminal charges and the Department would be held liable to civil damages. However, full civil “accountability” by an officer without internal review, or with a biased review, is a foolish notion to support.
Why should a peace officer have “Qualified Immunity” from direct civil suit? Because frivolous law suits can be used to intimidate and manipulate the judgment of officers during the enforcement of their duties. For example, it is common practice at Pelican Bay State Prison in the California Department of Corrections for inmates, including dangerous gang-members, to file “Citizen’s Complaints” against Correctional Officers and other Staff. Inmates have nothing but time to kill; and thanks to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Department of Corrections pays for an attorney to represent the inmates, as well as an investigator to find evidence to support their allegations regarding a citizen’s complaint. These complaints are often filed against Officers to gain potential financial judgments from the courts, to attempt access to the Officer’s home address and phone number for harassment or acts of violence against the Officer’s family, and to tax the free time and resources of the Officers who must fight these complaints in court on their own time. As it stands now, because of Qualified Immunity, legal representation and court costs are not shouldered by the Officer; but by their Department. If this were not the case, Officers would spend their entire monthly paycheck on attorney’s fees, and the bulk of their off-duty time in court.
If we are to believe everything that the mainstream media and Radical Leftist politicians have to say, Police are predisposed to Sociopathic and racist behavior. I am not aware of any statistical studies into Sociopathy in the workplace; however, an excellent study was done regarding Psychopathy in the workplace.
The book “Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work” was researched and written by Paul Babiak and Robert D. Hare, and released March 9th, 2006. According to their exhaustive studies and interviews, they determined that approximately 2% of the population are psychopaths. Psychopaths exist in every population, regardless of race, creed, color or gender. Further, they listed the most common occupations chosen by psychopaths, in order of predominance, to be:
1. CEOs and Politicians
2. Lawyers and Judges
3. Mainstream and Social Media Publishers, Producers and Editors
4. Salespersons
5. Surgeons
6. Journalists
7. Law Enforcement
8. Clergy
9. Chefs
10. Civil Servants
Thus, it is extremely unfair to single-out Police without paying similar attention to more dangerous and prolific psychopathic activity in other occupations. Are the activities of bad cops more destructive to society than corrupt politicians, unscrupulous corporate leaders, manipulative attorneys, crooked judges, or lying propagandist mass-media news professionals?
It is also important to address the difference between Psychopathy and Sociopathy. Psychopathy, has not been addressed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 4 or 5), with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) being the closest definition. Psychopathy is a personality disorder which is also rooted in physical abnormalities of the frontal lobe, amygdala and hippocampus within the brain. Psychopaths are naturally bereft of empathy and conscience from birth. Psychopaths are not created by society or cultural influences; but are born predisposed to such behavior. Psychopaths cannot be “Reformed” or “Cured.” It must also be mentioned that not all psychopaths are involved in criminal activity. It is also important to point out that the same brain abnormalities of the Psychopath exist in those afflicted with Autism, who are rarely involved in criminal activity.
Sociopaths differ from Psychopaths. Sociopaths are products of sub-cultures within a larger society. When the morays (morals) and folkways (values and customs) of these sub-cultures deviate significantly from those of Society at large, and breach common law, then they are considered Sociopathic. Examples of Sociopathy would include multi-generational gang and organized crime families involved in drug and human trafficking, generational Sabbataian-Frankists and Satanists involved in ritual child abuse and pedophilia, or generational racial or religious supremacists involved in acts of violence. Sociopaths are not bereft of empathy or conscience; but rather hold moral and cultural values of their sub-culture considered ‘by them’ to be above those of the larger Society.
During the past decades, our Constitutional Republic has seen the rise of a religion known as “Identity Politics,” and the subsequent dogma of “Critical Race Theory.” Because both of these belief systems emanate from Communist ideology, and aim toward the destruction of the larger free Society, they are (were?) both anti-social and Sociopathic. However, there comes a time when a sub-culture can dominate what was once the Society at large; and thus claim to be the New-Normal. We have seen this happen in history during the Bolshevik Revolution and Stalinist Purges in Russia, Nazism in Germany, Mao’s Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward in China, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge “Killing Fields” in Cambodia, ethnic-cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo, and the Hutu slaughter of Tutsi men, women and children in Rwanda. American Children, indoctrinated in these anti-social principals of Identity Politics and Critical Race Theory by public “education,” and brainwashed by mass-media programming, pop culture and social-media, are becoming the culture of our future. “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”
This communist world perspective of Identity Politics and Critical Race Theory has gained political control in the United States. Adoption and promotion of these beliefs by icons of pop-culture, with support from mainstream and social media, have given these toxic concepts a patina of respectability. Indeed, these Maoist Cultural Revolutionary beliefs have been portrayed as the “Norm” for our society. Although this new Normal does not have the actual numbers to support their thesis, the media can project a sense of dominance through propaganda, consensus programming and censure of truth. Although active revolutionaries seldom numbered anymore than 10 to 20% of the population in Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution, Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, and Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge; they still were able to gain control over a complacent public. In today’s People’s Republic of China, members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) only consist of 8% of the total population. This magnification of popular consensus has been done many times in the world, and is happening again right here in America today.
California’s AB-66 will remove all less than lethal force options from Law Enforcement during riots, looting, arson, assaults and mayhem resulting from Antifa and Black Lives Matter Movement “Demonstrations.” The results of this Bill will either be use of lethal force, or failure to enforce any laws whatsoever; up to and including self-defense. This law is an invitation to either all-out anarchy; or martial law under military occupation.
California’s new “Law Enforcement Accountability Reform Act” AB-655 will bar the employment of any police recruit belonging to a Hate Group. It will also make such officers directly civilly accountable for any actions resulting in a public complaint. Superficially, this seems like a good idea; after-all, who wants officers belonging to “Hate Groups” to roam the streets accosting law-abiding citizens? However, “Hate Groups,” since the inauguration of the Biden Administration, now include anybody who supported the conservative Make America Great Movement (MAGA), any Republican that questions the authenticity of the 2020 election results, fundamentalist Catholics, Evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews and Muslims; along with Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Thankfully, the author of AB-655 San Jose Assemblyman Ash Kalra made a last minute change in the wording of the Bill to drop conservatives, fundamentalist Christians, Jews and Muslims from the government “Hate List.” These groups can always be “redefined” for inclusion at a later date.
AB-731 seeks to end qualified immunity and shift responsibility of any Citizen’s Complaints, and subsequent court actions, away from law enforcement and correctional departments to the officers and staff that they employ. As mentioned before, this will lead to financial ruin from frivolous lawsuits against Officers. Such a policy may even lead to mass-resignations of law enforcement, with non-citizens wearing badges, which is already happening in Utah. However, at a time when spineless, corrupted and treacherous politicians and department-heads rule our enforcement bureaucracies, this new law will offer an easy escape from financial responsibility by designating underlings as scape-goats.
Senate Bill 776, which opens records of police misconduct or allegations of violence seems tame; unless it is implemented in conjunction with AB-731. Once Qualified Immunity is removed, an Officer faces an unlimited number of frivolous lawsuits. Along with reports of police misconduct, AB-731 retains records of violence. There is no stipulation that any of these reports or records be substantiated, or that the Officer be found guilty of misconduct. Use of force to overcome that of a perpetrator can be interpretated as violence. These records and allegations, even baseless ones, can be used in subsequent civil cases filed against an officer. Instead of being retained for the standard five years; these records and reports will be retained indefinitely.
Assembly Bill 1197 bans the use of carotid choke-holds by Law Enforcement Officers. This tactic has been banned for many years from most Departments in California, and has disappeared from most training manuals. However, in life and death struggles, it is still employed out of desperation.
Assembly Bill 1506 will severely limit internal affairs investigations of officer related deaths. A California State Prosecutor will lead any investigation into potential Police conduct resulting in death. If the State of California can be trusted to conduct a fair and impartial investigation, then there would be no problem. However, considering the politically-charged anti-Police bias of the California “Justice” System, fairness may give way to another opportunity to push the “Defund the Police” agenda.
Has an old dangerous sub-culture become the new dominate Society? Has the principal of a person being judged by merit; instead of race, creed, religion or color been abandoned? Has the Marxist Maxim “From all according to their capability; to each according to his need” become the foundation of New America? Have traditional religions been determined to be the “Opiate of the Masses?” Will we abandon families for communal living where wives and children are held as common chattel? Have those who maintain values of a Republic that protects the Constitutional Rights of all citizens, become a dangerous antisocial Sociopathic subculture of the new dominate Communist Society? Will we soon see the criminalization of those who were once considered patriots? Should we expect a coming purge of all conservatives who refuse to kneel, bow and raise a power-fist to Communist dictates? If we listen closely to the rhetoric emanating from mainstream media, pop-culture and Washington DC, the answer is “Yes” to all!
