I am sick to death of the daily stories of another person being shot, maimed, or killed while in police custody. I am tired of a policing society whose morals stem from the belief that some military opponents are enemy combatants entitled to no protection under the Geneva Convention and subject to tortures that had been heartily condemned when our leadership was rational.
Because—think about it—many of those donning combat gear to "police" a non-violent protest wore the same gear while fighting a war that abided by no ethical rules of combat. A war whose civilian leadership was the most morally corrupt our nation has ever known and that allowed that corruption to permeate throughout the ranks.
All of the dangers we railed against prior to the passage of the Orwellian-named Patriot Act have come to pass. We now live in a police state that has been legalized and reaches into every street in America. Yes, it is terrible that the state listens in to our every communication; worse is the attitude that they have a right to do that listening.
But even worse than that, and more deadly, is the attitude that those whom we pay to serve and protect feel entitled to demand our subservience. They demand our respect and instant compliance with their commands, legal or not, and our overt display of obsequiousness.
And if they are juiced, their demands can easily be accompanied by a hair trigger and followed by a physical expression of rage.
In 2006, for some reason that is still a mystery to me, Congress decided that it needed to investigate steroid abuse among professional entertainers who played games for money. And so they called to Washington men like Jose Canseco to question them about the use of androgenic anabolic steroids within their sport. Like this presented some significant national concern.
But it did establish a precedent. Congress proved that it is entitled to stick its nose into whatever it chooses. We have seen that repeatedly over the past six years. It is time that Congress investigated the illegal use of androgenic anabolic steroids within our law enforcement community on the local as well as the federal level.
Androgenic (promoting masculine characteristics) anabolic (tissue-building) steroids (the class of drugs) are used to achieve the distorted body types that are now often appearing behind the badges of law enforcement. Yes, the use of these steroids does facilitate the body-building potential of weight training, but it comes at a terrible cost, not only to the user, but to those around him.
Some of the possible health consequences of anabolic steroid abuse, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (National Institutes of Health), include:
Hormonal system in Men |
Hormonal system in Women |
- infertility
- breast development
- shrinking of the testicles
- male-pattern baldness
|
- enlargement of the clitoris
- excessive growth of body hair
- male-pattern baldness
|
Skin
|
Psychiatric effects
|
- severe acne and cysts
- oily scalp
- jaundice
|
- rage, aggression
- mania
- delusions
|
Worse, they are
gateway drugs:
Research also indicates that some users might turn to other drugs to alleviate some of the negative effects of anabolic steroids. For example, a study of 227 men admitted in 1999 to a private treatment center for addiction to heroin or other opioids found that 9.3 percent had abused anabolic steroids before trying any other illicit drug. Of these 9.3 percent, 86 percent first used opioids to counteract insomnia and irritability resulting from anabolic steroids.
So, with all of the negative side effects of anabolic steroids, why do police officers use them? Because they work. Anabolic steroids, combined with enough time at the gym can help an officer achieve the physique of the Amazing Hulk.
Police departments across the country have put increasing emphasis on physically fit law enforcement officers and might be turning a blind eye to the obvious use of performance-enhancing drugs because bulked-up officers can more easily intimidate members of the public. Bottom line: the reason for the bulky distortion of the human body, as well as the use of Star Wars stormtrooper gear, is to intimidate us. To frighten us enough to gain our immediate and obsequious compliance with their dictates.
What happened to Sandra Bland during her traffic stop happens all over the country every day. Did officer behavior, on the street or in the jail, have anything to do with the use of steroids? And why don't we know this? How hard would it be to test an officer who is involved in any aggression against a citizen? Or the death of anyone whom they are charged with protecting while in custody? Why are they not being tested?
And why is Congress not holding hearings asking these questions? We send hundreds of millions of tax dollars every year to local and state governments for use by law enforcement via the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program. Congress should be holding hearings right now to make sure that we are not providing the financial means to a community that is increasingly out of control.
Why should we have to count on the honest cops risking their lives, and the safety of their families, to turn in dirty cops?
In May of 2008, Florida Corrections Officer John Pisciotta was part of an extraction team sent to remove Kelly Bradley, a schizophrenic prisoner, from his cell at Florida's Charlotte Correctional Institution:
“This inmate was cowering under a blanket in the corner of his cell,” Pisciotta recalled in an interview this week. “He was an older man, very frail and mentally ill. He wasn’t trying to fight anybody. He was just scared. He was no threat to anyone.”
...
As they cuffed Bradley’s wrists and ankles, one of the officers, William Hamilton Wilson, reached toward Bradley’s face and dug his index finger into the inmate’s eye — several times —until he ripped out Bradley’s right eyeball. It happened swiftly, almost as if it was routine.
Pisciotta tried to let Wilson know that Bradley had been restrained, but it was too late. Afterwards, while they were removing, prior to destroying, their bloody gloves, Pisciotta told Wilson that he was not going to go along with the cover-up.
“C’mon, he’s just a f---ing n-----, whatta you care?” Wilson said, according to Pisciotta’s testimony.
A photo of William Hamilton Wilson can be found at the link above. There is no question in my mind that this officer needed to be tested for steroid abuse. He wasn't. He was charged with a civil rights violation and sentenced to five years in federal prison.
Had every officer involved in the extraction that resulted in an injury to Bradley been tested for anabolic steroids, it is likely that Officer Pisciotta would not have been falsely accused of a crime by his fellow officers. Nor would he have had to resign his position and move to Vermont.
“I knew once I did the right thing, and I stepped forward ... my career would be over,” Pisciotta told a jury during Wilson’s 2009 federal criminal trial. “It’s something you don’t do. You don’t go against other officers. Because my life has been a living hell ever since.’’
The fact that a few men like Officer Pisciotta do step forward, and at great personal and professional risk is amazing.
As part of the Department of Justice's settlement with Albuquerque, random testing will include checking for anabolic steroids. Miami has also decided to include anabolic steroids in the list of drugs for which its officers can be randomly tested.
No, testing for anabolic steroids will not reveal racist assholes, nor will it change the increasingly militaristic culture that infests our law enforcement or the entitlement attitude that is so pervasive.
It is not a solution. It is not an answer, but it is a step. Every time a person is injured or files a complaint of excessive force, a steroid test should be done as part of the routine investigation. And this should be mandated at the highest level, by those who control the purse strings.