Do Police Departments Unwittingly Attract an Aggressive Mentality?

Might the personality type most excited by inflicting pain on others be drawn to “serve” on a police force?  Might force itself be an allurement to such a personality? Moreover, might organizations populated by the personality be inclined to set up defenses against being held accountable either internally or by other organizations? At the very least, deference ought to go to the victims rather than the “officers.”

The New York City police department and the district attorney’s office set investigations in motion after video surfaced of Anthony Bologna of the police department using pepper spray against protesters of Wall Street greed and the lack of accountability there. Even as the department’s own investigation was yet to commence, the chief publically questioned whether the video offered enough context to evaluate the inspector’s actions. To the chief, merely protesting in a way that blocked traffic justifies the use of pepper spray without warning. The inspector’s union boss claimed the motive had been to restore order—though the video shows that the victims were not disorderly or resisting arrest. Indeed, the police did not attempt to arrest those sprayed. It is not difficult to see where the police investigation of its own will go.

Beyond the hypocrisy involved in those sworn to protect actually attacking and the anti-Americanism involved in trying to curtail a protest, it might reasonably be asked whether Bologna was acting on his own, or whether Wall Street money was ultimately behind the aggression. In the protest’s first four days, the mega media companies scarcely covered the protest; Bologna’s unprovoked aggression came after the news networks could no longer viably ignore the movement. So was the case simply that of American banks using the police state to keep a movement from spreading to their detriment? Were there actual accountability on Bologna, might the bird sing, affording us some transparency concerning any such hidden relationships?

Even if no such conspiracy existed, there is obviously a need for stronger instruments of accountability that could be imposed externally on police departments and their employees. In the wake of Bologna’s attacks, the media reported that such incidents are not uncommon. Indeed, I have witnessed them. While in Pittsburgh, for example, I witnessed how the police treated black teenagers who were simply walking along the sidewalks in the university area of town (Oakland). It was evident to me at the time (as a bystander leaving a restaurant) that the police employees believed they did not face any meaningful accountability. So I was not surprised to see video surface of Anthony Bologna’s sadism on full display in New York.

Thomas Hobbes writes that in the state of nature, and even in society, each person has the right to protect his or her person, as per the right of self-preservation. A sovereign cannot take this inalienable right away. When Bologna acted outside of the law, and thus outside of the social contract, his victims had the right to defend themselves, even in using pepper spray against the attacker. In other words, Bologna could and should have been treated as a criminal attacker by his victims and bystanders. Perhaps in the future protestors ought to carry pepper spray in case any criminals show up and attempt any aggressive attacks. It could be that the offending attackers are imprisoned while the self-preserving protestors are exonerated. Then maybe police departments will recognize that accountability applied to their own employees is in the departments’ interest. Legitimate force goes only so far before it lapses into criminality, and we all have an obligation as citizens to thwart crime as it is happening by whomever. If police employees do not want other citizens to be put in the position of making this judgment, then perhaps those employees might want to reassess their attitude and habits. In the meantime, citizens need to be on guard against criminals even and especially where they are least expected and perhaps most commonly found.

Source:

Al Baker and Joseph Goldstein, “Officer’s Pepper-Spraying of Protesters Is Under Investigation,” New York Times, September 29, 2011. 

Mitt Romney’s “About-Face" in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election: A Candidate’s Conflict-of-Interest

As was demonstrated in September 2008 as banks began to stop lending to each other even overnight, trust is the foundation, or grundlagen, of a market. The same is true in relationships between people. I would be surprised were a marriage ever the same after even a contrite spouse has had an extramarital affair. The same is true in politics; once the electorate has been lied to, it is very hesitant to remove the asterisk next to the politician’s name. The relevance of a politician’s extra-marital affair, such as the flowery lapse of Gary Hart or the sordid stains of Bill Clinton, is that the people conclude that they, like the wives, could be betrayed. Once established, a lack of trust tends to spread like an invidious cancer until it has encompassed the entire body politic. The shift is from justice to a lack of harmony on many levels.

Plato theorized that justice is the harmony within the rational psyche and polis (city, or country) as well as between the heavenly spheres (planets and stars)—the harmony between the rational and the vibrations of the spheres being in sync, which is justice itself. It follows that a person who lets his or her desires run rampant is in line with a squalid or aggressive city, and that neither of these shares in the musical/mathematic harmonious vibrations of and between the heavenly spheres. Lack of trust at the personal, business, or civic level can be said to be a symptom of the shift from the condition of harmony, and thus justice, to discord.

It follows that in a republic or union thereof, it is vital to maintaining justice (as harmony) that the electorate not be as sheep in taking in that which a politician claims regarding what he or she “really believes.” Once a candidate has stupidly lapsed in terms of trustworthiness, the electorate should be cognizant of the conflict of interest in the candidate later dismissing the substance of his or her real feelings or beliefs. In general, if a candidate’s statement is in line with him or her getting elected, a due dose of salt should be taken with that dish.

I have in mind Mitt Romney’s statement at a closed-door fundraiser in September, 2012 that nearly half of Americans don’t pay income taxes, view themselves as victims, and refuse to take responsibility for their lives, wanting to live off entitlement programs instead. Some seventeen days later, after even prominent office-holders in his own party distanced themselves from his view, the presidential candidate stated publically, “In this case, I said something that’s just completely wrong.” The question is whether this electorally-convenient “change in belief” is believable, given its consistency with electoral victory.

              Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, in an image tailor-made as "brand image" for generic consumption.  Reuters

For an electorate to be like sheep is to ignore the conflict of interest and take at face value whatever a candidate says. Simply being on television brings with it the veneer of official truth, so it is difficult for a “mere viewer” to discount the veracity of the celebrity’s claims based solely on one’s own subjective judgment. In a democracy, however, such judgments constitute popular sovereignty, under which governmental sovereignty is exercised by public officials. Therefore, the citizenry has a responsibility to place its judgment above the larger-than-life asseverations made by candidates or office-holders at mass rallies or on television. The deck, I fear, is stacked against popular sovereignty in favor of the agents, and television has exacerbated the problem even as the medium has enabled voters in an “extended republic” to “see” more of the candidates (or their marketed “brand” image).

To aid the electorate in its subjective judgment made in the privacy of each mind, a few principles may be helpful. First, as stated above, a candidate’s statement made in contradiction to an earlier one and in line with his or her electoral success on election day is subject to a conflict of interest. In other words, the claim that the candidate had been wrong should not be taken at face value if it, unlike the earlier claim, is in line with getting elected.

Mitt Romney’s statement disparaging nearly half of the electorate can reasonably be assumed to be at odds with him winning the election (even making such a statement privately may be a lapse of judgment effectively disqualifying a candidate from any high office in which using good judgment is crucial).  Romney's later claim that his earlier privately-expressed view had been “just completely wrong” can be taken to be in line with his political interest. This pattern, or "switch" in line with political interest, constitutes a conflict of interest because he could reasonably be assumed to be lying in his later statement in order to improve his chances of winning. That the earlier statement had been made in private whereas he announced his “change of heart” publically involves a second principle.

That which is said privately can be taken to have more credibility than that which is stated publically. This is a less direct way of looking at the conflict of interest. A candidate may express his or her authentic beliefs privately because doing so publically would not be in line with winning the election. The switch from private to public after the private statement is leaked is particularly suspect because it is reasonable to assume that the public statement is not genuine, but, rather, is geared to reducing “political damage.”  For the public to assume that the candidate has recognized his or her error and that the public statement is a sort of contrition ignores the conflict of interest. In other words, the sheep mentality is naïve, more a matter of idealistic projection than in what is actually motivating the candidate.

Self-governance, whether of a psyche or in a republic (or union thereof), includes governing one’s own fantasies and projections in order that one can more accurately assess candidates for office and office-holders. Here again is Plato’s notion of justice in the reason-governed psyche being in line with the reason-governed polis (electorate). Being intellectually honest in one’s assessment of even one’s ideologically-favored candidate can be said to be one of the duties of citizenship if self-governance is to apply both to a person and a republic. Letting candidates get away with double-talk is a case of an undisciplined psyche and electorate of a polity not worthy of government by the people.

Whichever way an electorate leans in its collective judgment in a given election, it is my hope that the judgment illustrates the best in popular sovereignty. It is essential, albeit difficult for a large electorate, to hold the agents (even as candidates) accountable to the will of the people, such that the collective will is rendered as clear as possible and that the agents implement it rather than assume (or presume) a superior position to it.

For more on conflicts of interest in government and business, see Institutional Conflicts of Interest, available at Amazon.

Source:

Colleen Nelson, “Romney Backs Off Remarks About the 47%”, The Wall Street Journal, October 5, 2012.

Police Aggress Protesters: Sadism or Politics?

The day after several marches and rallies by the “Occupy Wall Street” movement in New York City in 2011, The New York Times reported that “two dozen people were arrested at a Citibank branch on LaGuardia Place on trespassing charges. Some witnesses said that the protesters had tried to leave but were locked inside by bank employees. ‘They were trying to leave, but they wouldn’t let them,’ said Meaghan Linick, 23, of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. She said one woman who had been inside and left was forced back inside by police officers. Citibank, in a statement, said the protesters ‘were very disruptive and refused to leave after being repeatedly asked, causing our staff to call 911.’ The statement continued, ‘The police asked the branch staff to close the branch until the protesters could be removed.’” The Times report does not mention whether the protesters were existing Citibank customers trying to close their accounts. The report does refer to this at a Chase bank. “Earlier, about a dozen protesters entered a Chase branch in Lower Manhattan and withdrew their money from the bank while 300 other people circled the block, some shouting chants and beating on drums. The former Chase customers, who declined to reveal how much they had in their accounts — though a few acknowledged it was not much — said they planned to put their money into smaller banks or credit unions.’ The more resources we give to small institutions, the more they’ll be able to provide conveniences like free A.T.M.’s and streamlined online banking so they can compete with the larger banks,’ said Hannah Appel, 33, a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University.” The report does not indicate whether the former customers were arrested.
From the report, it does not appear that anyone was arrested for closing a bank account; the protesters at Chase closed their accounts but were not arrested, while the protesters at Citi did not close their accounts but were arrested (for trespassing). Of course, the newspaper’s information could be mistaken. Were any customers arrested simply for closing a bank account, both the bank branch’s manager and the police involved should be terminated from their respective employments and prosecuted. The report does indicate that Citi employees locked protesters inside the bank. This act constitutes false imprisonment, which is illegal. I would think that the subsequent arrests would be thrown out by a judge.

I suspect that psychologically abusive persons are a sizable presence on many police forces. From casual observation, I have been surprised at how quickly and easily a significant number of police employees cross the line simply because they can—meaning that they assume without reservation that they can get away with trespassing the rights of others with impunity. The pattern is no accident.
Beyond orchestrated political uses of police forces (e.g., to teach those kids a lesson), present police recruitment procedures across the United States are inadequate in ferretting out mentally disturbed, abusive personalities. Furthermore, mechanisms to impose accountability on individual employees of police departments are woefully impotent, given the lack of self-restraint or even apparent self-questioning by police employees who are going to do what they are going to do, period. So, besides investigating particular cases of how the political or business elite uses police departments against the rights of protesters, elected officials in towns and cities (at the urging of state- or federal-level officials if necessary) could do more in seeing to it that the citizens are not abused by individual police employees by 1) ordering police chiefs to expand the role of psychological tests and interviews in the recruitment process and 2) instituting an external, independent committee or board with the power to fire police employees for abusing (or threatening to abuse) their authority.

Concerning recruitment, it is important to keep in mind that no one has a right to be on a police force. It is especially the case that bad attitudes need not apply, yet it does appear that they are extant on police forces. The NYPD, for example, has a long history of police brutality and cover-ups, which suggests that the recruitment process is woefully inadequate in screening out psychologically troubled candidates.

        Anthony Bologna of NYPD pepper-spraying protesters following his orders

Concerning accountability, enforcement of the law against police who go beyond their authority at the expense of other people should be strengthened and harsher sentences should be enacted. In some jurisdictions, even the laws by which police can make arrests should be tightened. In New York City, for example, police can arrest people for deemed “safety issues” even if no law had been broken. Outside an event run by the Huffington Post, the police lied to author Naomi Wolf when they stated that the Post’s permit barred protests on the sidewalk. Even though Wolf verified with the event organizer that the police claim was false, the police arrested her after she joined some protesters walking up and down the sidewalk (i.e., not obstructing foot traffic). At the police station, a sergeant told her she was arrested for a “safety issue.” According to the Huffington Post, “The cop didn’t dispute her claim that she wasn’t breaking the law. But she said he explained that whenever police deem it a safety issue, they can make an arrest.” Given the propensity of the police to arrest unlawfully, this loophole should be tightened or replaced with procedures triggered in the event of a disaster (not just safety) that can be independently documented (e.g., an explosion in a subway station).

I suspect that the lack of accountability on police employees who take it on themselves to extend their force beyond the law stems from the fact that enforcement mechanisms are not typically sufficiently independent of the police and local governments. Even “internal affairs” is evidently not sufficient. Police on the beat not sensing any viable external restraint in abusing others is itself indicative of too little accountability on the books as well as in practice. In other words, the attitude itself bespeaks a lapse in the system, which the offending persons undoubtedly know exists and can be counted on as they impose themselves even on people they know to be innocent. A police employee who uses his or her position to intervene in a civil matter, for example, should be fired because it can be assumed that the encroachment was intentional. Also, a police employee who pushes or hits a non-violent citizen without the latter having resisted arrest should be fired. Additionally, the offending officer should be prosecuted. In fact, state legislatures should stiffen the penalties as a deterrent. The penalties for police employees should be stiffer than for other citizens because the right to legitimate force carries with it a special obligation. Breaking a special duty warrants a longer sentence.

Whereas some of the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters referred to “police terrorism,” such hyperbole should be replaced by sadism, the deriving of pleasure by inflicting pain on others. This diagnosis would doubtless apply to Anthony Bologna, who sprayed innocent people with pepper-spray. Beyond politics, the deeper problem is that of sickness. What would happen, je me demande, if the protesters simply chanted, “Sicko! Sicko! Sicko!” or “You’re sick!” at an offending officer as he violently lashes out without provocation?  I suspect that the truth would hurt. Moreover, the protesters could pressure elected officials to stiffen the enforcement mechanisms and sentences.


Sources:

Cara Buckley and Rachel Donadio, “Buoyed by Wall St. Protests, Rallies Sweep the Globe,” The New York Times, October 16, 2011. 

Jason Cherkis, “Author Naomi Wolf Speaks Out About Her Arrest at Occupy Wall Street,” Huffington Post, October 19, 2011. 

Related essays: "When Police Are the Criminals" and "Christian Protests in Egypt" and "Protest Movements 101"

A U.S. Visa Fast-Track For Rich Investors

The New York Times reported in December 2011 that affluent foreigners had been rushing to take advantage of a U.S. immigration program. The foreign applicants must invest at least $500,000 in construction projects within the United States. The number of applicants had nearly doubled since the end of 2008 to more than 3,800 in the 2011 fiscal year. The intent of the program is to spur economic development at a time of high unemployment. Yet the program has also been characterized as a cash-for-visas scheme. Besides the question of whether the program’s rules have been stretched in New York City to qualify projects in prosperous areas for special concessions, an ethical question can be raised concerning who should get a visa.
Obviously, the program’s designers must have known that only wealthy people could qualify. A public-interest ethical argument could be made that they deserve a green card because they contribute to economic development out of which jobs for Americans can ensue. Indeed, to the extent that the additional investment results in more economic activity, the visitors making the investment in 2011 could have been helping to forestall a double-dip recession. This was a distinct possibility at the time, given the E.U. debt crisis.
The ethical issue is in the exclusion of people who are not wealthy. The principle of fairness would seem to mandate that just as many non-rich foreigners be granted green cards above the ordinary limit. However, this would seem to be rather artificial—a sort of tit for tat—as in “we’ll accept your tax cut if you accept ours.” Moreover, in the context of high unemployment, any such increase in visas should not add to the supply of labor.
John Rawls suggested that in designing such a system as applying for a green card, a veil of ignorance as to whether one will be rich or poor should be utilized. Rawls’ thinking was that if the designers cannot know whether they or their friends will be rich or poor, then the proposed system design will be fair (i.e., there would be the chance that one’s friends are poor foreigners unable to get a green card). While fair in itself, this ethical device may not adequately take into account the public interest that could be satisfied by only one segment (e.g., the rich). Should the U.S. renounce the possibility of more economic development, particularly at a time of high unemployment, just because poor and middle-class foreigners cannot participate?
Related to the matter of income and wealth, it can be asked from both the public interest and ethical standpoints whether capital investment is more valuable economically than highly skilled and educated foreigners. To be sure, the latter ought not crowd out citizens and existing residents who have comparable skills and knowledge, and it is presumably possible to further train and educate existing citizens and residents.
For example, the very same issue of the New York Times containing the story of the green cards for foreign investors reported that M.I.T. was announcing an expanded program that would still allow anyone anywhere to take M.I.T. courses online free of charge, but would add online labs, self-assessments and student-to-student discussion. Also, for a small charge, a certificate can be obtained. At the time, the university’s free OpenCourseWare included nearly 2,100 courses and had been used by more than 100 million people. Rafael Reif, the provost, gave the following as the operating assumption: “There are many people who would love to augment their education by having access to M.I.T. content, people who are very capable to earn a certificate from M.I.T.” To be sure, a certificate would not be a degree, but in terms of non-professional jobs the former may be sufficient. “The most important thing is that it’ll be a certificate that will clearly state that a body sanctioned by M.I.T. says you have gained mastery,” Reif added. The notion that cost (and debt) ought not be an obstacle to a natural drive to learn more, whether in terms of skills or knowledge, is foreign in the United States (and increasingly in Europe as well).
Yet from the standpoint of economic development as well as jobs, viewing education as an investment rather than as a purchased product would likely pay substantial dividends. Where such an approach to vocational training and higher education falls short for citizens and residents, welcoming the best and the brightest from abroad—even training and educating them at online programs such as M.I.T’s—may be an investment policy even more beneficial than that of attracting additional capital investment in construction projects.

Sources:

Tamar Lewin, “M.I.T. Plans to Expand Its Free Online Courses,” The New York Times, December 19, 2011.

Patrick McGeehan and Kirk Semple, “Rules Stretched as Green Cards Go to Investors,” The New York Times, December 19, 2011. 

Fraud in Selling Sub-Prime Mortgage-Based Bonds: Beyond Accountability

“In December 2011, the S.E.C. publicized its civil securities fraud charges against top executives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for understating their exposure to subprime mortgages, which resulted in the government taking them over.”[1] Robert Khuzami, then the head of the S.E.C.’s enforcement division, said at the time that “all individuals, regardless of their rank or position, will be held accountable for perpetuating half-truths or misrepresentations about matters materially important to the interest of our country’s investors.”[2] Pursuing even senior ranks has the air of fairness economically as well as in terms of the dictum, no one is above the law. So much for words; how about the accompanying deeds?

The full essay is at "Essays on the Financial Crisis."

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[1] Peter Henning, “Prosecution of Financial Crisis Fraud Ends With a Whimper,” The New York Times, August 29, 2016.

[2] Ibid.

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On the Nature of Entrenched Power: FIFA’s President Ensconced in Corruption

In May 2015, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch was “shocking FIFA like an earthquake,” according to the European newspaper, Das Bild.[1] She was leading “an American-led takedown of corruption in FIFA,” the Federation Internationale de Football Association, which oversees the sport of football, or soccer as it is known in the U.S., globally.[2] With great power comes resounding responsibility, even if the sound is ignored. When the head of an organization goes after the corruption-fighters rather than admitting to error at the very least in having presided over allegedly corrupt officials near the top—and in fact repeatedly dismisses calls to resign and not stand for re-election (but then is implicated and resigns just days after he was astonishingly reelected!)—the question becomes one of the intractability of squalid power, as if it were defying gravity—at least that of the ethical variety. 

The full essay is in Cases of Unethical Business, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.com.  

Banks Guilty of Colluding to Set Euro-Dollar Exchange-Rate Basis: Toward a Competitive Market

In May 2015, Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, and the Royal Bank of Scotland both acknowledged colluding to set the “fix” rate in foreign exchange markets, and agreed both to change their internal cultures and pay criminal fines of over $2.5 billion.[1] The U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, stated that her department would “vigorously prosecute all those who tilt the economic system in their favor; who subvert our marketplaces; and who enrich themselves at the expense of American customers.”[2] I submit that this does not go far enough, given the size and power of the banks and the condition of the sector.

Private gain at the expense of the public good is an old story. Corporations give to Congressional campaigns at least in part in hopes of being able to bend federal lawmakers to insert and approve a loophole that would keep the good of the whole from constraining quite so much the particular private interests. To be viable in the long term, a republic—even a republic of republics—must privilege the public good over potentially overweening private interests; otherwise, the implicit message can only be that anything goes—provided a company’s head knows where to send the dollars.

In using “a private electronic chatroom to manipulate the spot market’s exchange rate between euros and dollars using coded language to conceal their collusion,” the banks, or “The Cartel” as they referred to their group, “acted as partners—rather than competitors—in an effort to push the exchange rate in directions favorable to their banks but detrimental to many others.”[3] In other words, the banks acted as price-makers rather than price-takers; the market could not, therefore, be considered competitive. I submit that Lynch did not go far enough in settling for an acknowledgement of wrong-doing, promised change of internal cultures, and a fine; they do necessarily result in a competitive marketplace. Lynch said that the “penalty all these banks will now pay is fitting considering the long-running and egregious nature of their anticompetitive conduct” as well as “the pervasive harm done.”[4] Perhaps this so in terms of the size of the fine, but in giving the public confidence that the market would from then on be competitive. If firms in an industry are large enough that four of them colluding can set a price or rate, then the industry is oligarchic. To move it to a competitive basis, governmental action breaking up the largest firms (including in terms of ownership) is necessary. The justification lies in the value of the public good when economic liberty and property rights threaten to compromise the good of the whole.

To be sure, the U.S. Government would only be able to break up Citicorp and JPMorgan. Lest it be claimed that the resulting smaller firms would have less wherewithal to compete with Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland (as well as other banks), shedding less profitable divisions and focusing on developing a specialty-area can result in higher profits (i.e., from the sale of premium goods). Had lawmakers and President Obama given the U.S. Government the authority to break up financial institutions that have an unacceptable level of system risk (i.e, that a bank’s collapse could paralyze the entire financial system given the impact of high volatility on the market mechanism adjusting for risk), breaking up the largest American banks would not only make the sector more competitive, but also reduce the banks’ respective systemic risks. Were a crisis and ensuing short-sellers’ run on the banks occur, holding more dollars in reserves might not buy a bank much more time. It did not take long for Lehman Brothers to run through its cash once the short-sellers set in.

In short, the U.S. Attorney General could have taken a more systemic view and a related pro-active approach oriented beyond holding the banks accountable by including measures that would have provided the public with more confidence that the sector would be more competitive in the future.

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1. Loretta Lynch, “Attorney General Lynch Delivers Remarks at a Press Conference on Foreign Exchange Spot Market Manipulation,” The U.S. Department of Justice, May 20-, 2015.

2. Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4. Ibid. Lynch said that the banks’ concerted actions “inflated the banks’ profits while harming countless consumers, investors and institutions around the globe—from pension funds to major corporations, and including the banks’ own customers—who placed their faith in the market and relied on it to produce a competitive exchange rate.” Ibid.

China’s Increasing International Role: A Historical Departure

Historically, China was isolationist. The Opium Wars in the mid-19^th century is a good illustration of why. From this context, China’s announcements of a series of international trade and finance initiatives by which China would assume a larger leadership role internationally are stunning. Doubtless the enhanced role is in line with China’s geopolitical and economic interests. After all, political realism is hardly a dead theory in the 21^st century. Even so, the impact of the reversal on the culture is significant, and thus worthy of study. Specifically, the traditional mistrust of foreigners is likely to diminish. As it does, the Chinese will be more likely to consider and even advocate for economic and political principles, such as liberty and rights, that are valued elsewhere in the world but not so much in China. The result could be increased political instability. In short, the initiatives timed to coincide with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in November 2014 could eventually weaken the Chinese government’s grip on power.

The full essay is at “China’s Increasing International Role”

NBA Team-Owner Faces Wrath of the Mob For Racist Conversation

As the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court were looking at two cases involving cellphone privacy from the standpoint of police access, NBC Commissioner Adam Silver announced that he had banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling from attending any NBA team practice or game for life and was being fined $2.5 million. Interestingly, given the tenor of the public discourse, the Clippers’ owner had not made a public pronouncement regarding his negative view of black people; rather, a tabloid had taped and broadcast a private cellphone conversation. That is to say, Sterling would have to pay a multi-million dollar fine for what he had said in a private conversation with his girlfriend. I contend there is reason to pause at this news, lest such public pressure establish the precedent wherein the passions of the mob is effectively given such reign as to render property ownership and the rule of law as so contingent that might makes right. 

Had the NSA rather than a Hollywood tabloid outfit recorded the conversation and made it public, the absolutist tone in the media’s non-debate would doubtlessly have been muted. Even so, the judgment on Sterling’s less-than-sterling moral turpitude would probably have been just as swift. Interestingly, a judge in Egypt had just announced his sentencing of over 600 defendants to death after what had been a ten-minute trial (with the vast majority of the defendants tried in abstentia). Although no one was publically calling for Sterling’s head literally, the air of la fait accompli would be difficult to miss throughout the American media. The sheer absolutist tone rings particularly shrill in a democratic republic that enshrines the rule of law rather than that of garden-variety dislike (whether that of Sterling or his many detractors).

As one pundit said on CNN, “You can’t fall on the other side of this issue.”[1] He added that the same applies to childhood obesity. Presumably a NBA team owner cannot denigrate fat kids and expect to be able to continue to attend the team’s practices and games. Saying “that player’s kid is a real fattie” on a private phone call thus risks the kid’s big brother coming back with public condemnations and a demand that the team owner be banned and even forced to sell his or her property.  In other words, property ownership can be contingent what a person says in private conversations that can be construed by other people as immoral or out of sync with contemporary societal norms.

Overwhelmed by the lashing out of anger at the octogenarian who had grown up in a very different era—indeed, in another century, when Nazi doctors were measuring facial features to extract impure races from Europe—the media barely mentioned the lack of any precedent in the NBA for removing an owner, and that moral turpitude is not listed in the bylaws as justifying the remove of an owner’s property-interest in a team.[2] Although a provision allows for “the interests of any owner” to be terminated if he or she “wilfully violates” any other provisions of the NBA “constitution,” The Wall Street Journal reports, “Many of the behaviors that constitute a justification for a forced sale involve financial issues, like failing to make payments on time or gambling on NBA games.”[3] If what is said in a private conversation between a man and his girlfriend can constitute a wilful violation of virtually anything stated or implied in the “constitution,” then why even bother with parchment?

One commentator even decried the owners for not having acted immediately to divest Sterling of his ownership, as if the owners would be justified in ignoring the NBA’s board of governors’ bylaws that give Sterling a period to reply and plead his case to his peers.[4] The sudden invisibility of the NBA’s own rules was itself largely off the media’s radar screen, conveniently dwarfed by the cavalcade of calls for Sterling’s head on a silver plate. John Locke, who had penned on the natural rights to life, liberty, and property, would doubtless be more than a bit uneasy at the demands that Sterling be forced to sell his property in such a way. Put another way, if owning a NBA team is so contingent, does ownership even apply?

(Image Source: favimages.net)

We are so human, all too human in fact, in our wilful summary judgments and infallible sentencing—both presumptions being based on the human instinct of dislike and even hatred stemming from an unrequited injury from the past—that we hardly realize collectively (i.e., in our public discourse as a society) that we have all sailed right past the rule of law as though it were some relic from an ancient saint. The irony here is of course that lynching used to be associated with Caucasian racists rather than their foes. 

One of Sterling’s attackers, one of many pundits referred to the need for healing following the “conversation on race.” Yet it fell on Chuck Todd as if to remind both his colleagues and the public at large that “there was no debate; no one defended [Sterling].”[5] This point ought to give us all at least some pause, regardless of which view we hold on this case, presuming we as a civilized society still believe in the rule of law rather than the passions of the mob, and still value the true diversity that is necessary for truly free and open public discourse.

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[1] The Situation Room, CNN, April 29, 2014.

[2] One exception was Chuck Todd of NBC News, as evinced on The Daily Rundown, MSNBC, April 30, 2014.

[3] Ashley Jones, “NBA’s Decision Against Clippers’ Owner: Is It Legal?” The Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2014.

[4] Christine Brennan, “Owners Drop Ball,” USA Today, April 29, 2014.

[5] Chuck Todd, The Daily Rundown, MSNBC, April 30, 2014.

Credit-Card Companies in a Conflict of Interest

On April 12, 2012, Hawaii sued Bank of America, Chase, Citi, Barclays, Capital One, Discover, HSBC, and their subsidiaries, “claiming that the banks ‘slammed’ Hawaii credit card customers, charging them for products customers didn't need and that the companies never provided.”[1] The Hawaiian government alleges that the banks used “‘predatory tactics to sign up customers for services they either don’t want or don't qualify for,’ and the companies charged their customers ‘without their knowledge or consent,’ according to a press release issued by the Hawaii attorney general's office.”[2] According to the Attorney General, David Louie, “You don't know that you're enrolling, but they say, 'Oh you just enrolled,' okay, and now they've put a charge on your credit card.”[3]  The banks’ telemarketing departments may have charged customers an average of $150 in the form of small charges.

The full essay is at Institutional Conflicts of Interest, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.

1. Bonnie Kavoussi, “Hawaii Sues Bank of America, Chase, Citi, Others For DeceptiveCredit Card Marketing,” The Huffington Post, April 13, 2012.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

Justice as Fairness: Writing Down Greek Debt

In 2012, 80% of Greece’s private creditors agreed to “voluntarily” convert their Greek debt into debt of a bit less than half the face-value (plus a lower interest rate). With such a proportion having agreed to the swap without triggering credit default swap insurance payouts, Greece could get the E.U. to agree to force the remaining 20% to involuntary write-downs. That would trigger the credit default swaps, at least in theory.

The full essay is at "Justice as Fairness: Greek Debt."

The London Riots of 2011: Protesting Police Power

Over three nights of rioting in London after the police shooting of a 29-year-old father of four, over 450 people had been arrested and 44 police officers injured. The rioting began on August 6, 2011 when a peaceful march in protest of the police use of lethal force turned violent. According to The Huffington Post, “Hooded and masked youths threw bottles and petrol bombs at police and buildings and vehicles, setting a building, a bus and cars alight.”[1] The source of the violence seems clear, at least with respect to its beginning. Rather than being fueled by greed at that point, anger at a possible abuse of power by the local police seems to have been the motive.[2] To be sure, rioting spread to include the looting of stores by kids and opportunistic adult thieves, but to claim that greed itself was the driving force instigating the riots is to miss the purpose of the initial march and give the London police a pass.

According to The New York Times, “The Daily Telegraph struck a popular chord when it blamed a ‘culture of greed and impunity’ that [the Telegraph] said extended to corporate boardrooms and the government itself.”[3] Indeed, the greed that almost took down the global financial system in September 2008 seemed unglued from any feasible normative constraint, including that proffered by Christianity (which formerly could threaten an afterlife literally of fire and brimstone).  Indeed, the Christian virtue of magnificence (i.e., philanthropy on a grand scale) can even perpetuate greed, as being wealthy is a prerequisite— rather unlike like a camel too big to get through the eye of a needle. Left unanswered by The Telegraph, however, was how or whether the greed in a bank’s boardroom that results in liars’ loans followed by foreclosures differs from the greed of a looter.  The differential treatment by the state government was palpable: bankers get bailouts (and bonuses), while looters get the full force of the law.

In any case, irrespective of any accretions of greed having been adjoined to the violence, residual anger at the police’s use of their power was likely in play as late as the third night, when, according to the deputy Mayor, “disturbing levels of violence were directed at officers again,”[4] including one policeman suffering broken bones and another receiving an eye injury. Were greed the only motive, anger would not have been directed at the police. Rather, the strategy would have simply been to evade them.

Furthermore, lest it be presumed that the anger over the force used by the police was simply a manifestation of selfishness, it could be argued alternatively that the unselfish human motive to stand up to power in the midst of an injustice was involved. This is not to justify the behavior, for the protestors/rioters would have been wiser to wait for the Independent Police Complaints Commission do its work and arrive at a determination; an unsatisfactory answer could then be matched with peaceful protest and an unwillingness to volunteer to help the police, rather than with violence.

At a distance from all the “mayhem,” I suspect that there is more to this story than merely a reaction against one incident (and even the looting).  I would not be surprised if the local police had a pattern of behavior of abuse of power, and that the shooting of the father of four was the last straw. To be sure, the troubled youth culture that partook of the violence and stealing is perhaps just as corrosive as unaccountable police abuse of citizens. Both problems are in need of being addressed in many cities around the world, not just in London. This is not to say that the riots reduce to public policy choices such as spending cuts in services (or to a debate on them). A police culture that does not respect law or citizens is unacceptable in a free society. A police officer who ignores department policy and even law to push a citizen beyond what is right and lawful is just as much of a thug as is the teenager who throws rocks at store windows in order to steal a plasma TV. To be sure, a youth culture of utter disrespect for others is also unacceptable, and it would be good if citizens would stand up to such thugs. Standing above both the police and teenage self-vaunted bullies are the people who sought to march in peace to point to the possible injustice of the initial killing. My point is simply that those people and their message were too quickly forgotten in the public uproar about greed, selfishness and the slow police response.

Therefore, rather than point to greed and selfishness exclusively, I would recommend that the investigation by the IPCC be expanded to look at whether the London police department has a pattern of abuse of citizens. That the department was inadequate in responding to the first riots suggests a culture of incompetence, and such a culture can easily go with an unethical culture. Where there is smoke, there is usually fire too—meaning they may not have only been in the cars and buildings. Riots do not pop up out simply from greed, which is more or less a constant in human nature. Nor do selfish people wake up one day and start rioting because they are suddenly more selfish. Rather, specific injustices fomenting resentment and frustration are much more likely to spark violence (which in turn can enable kids and adults to steal and destroy property even as ends in themselves).

I am not denying that people are greedy. In fact, emphasizing justice, especially in terms of benevolence, can serve as a constraint on greed! Along with actively valuing justice, people can have a low tolerance for injustice when accountability seems compromised or utterly corrupted by power-aggrandizement. Of course, two wrongs don’t make a right even where an injustice is the spark; the initial march could and should have remained peaceful.  Non-violent non-cooperation—including giving a corrupt police force the cold shoulder, actively ignoring police on their beat as outside society—would do more to make the sordid presumption of assumed power transparent.

1. Dina Rickman, “London Riots,” The Huffington Post, August 9, 2011. 

2. “Questions Over Duggan’s Death as Tension in London Remains High,” The Huffington Post, August 8, 2011.

3. Ravi Somaiya, “After Riots, Conflicting Answers as to ‘Why’,”The New York Times, August 13, 2011. 

3. Dina Rickman, “London Riots,” The Huffington Post, August 9, 2011.