My friend and I were discussing the current todo about the Confederate Flag and the tragic deaths of several people as a result of encounters with police forces when I asked the question, what name to we give an argument in which we condemn, as an example, police practices and procedures based on the tragic consequences of just a few such police forces? My friend, not being at all interested in philosophy or logic, responded that race prejudice seemed to be a good name. I objected, saying that I was trying to think of a word that referred to the logical fallacy of assuming that all entities of a given type are flawed because a flaw has been found in one of them. I searched for a word and finally made one up: "gooseflaw." Then I had to relate the word to the kind of argument.
It wasn't hard. Geese are meant to be eaten. I have bought a goose from a grocery and have prepared it for cooking. I discover a flaw in the goose: part of the gizzard is missing. If I practice the faulty logic described above, I assume that the entire goose is unsuitable for eating because of the faulty gizzard and I throw the goose into the garbage.
Is that what some of us are doing to the thousands of police forces in this country? Because bad things happen in four of them in a month, we condemn all the others? That's a logical fallacy and because I can't think of the word I've made up a silly word, "gooseflaw," in place of the word I've forgotten.
Rather than continue this rather silly argument about a word, I should write something about what I think might be done about the problem of police forces that mistreat African-Americans and other "different" people. I start from the premise that the four examples of mistreatment in a month represent four police forces in need of change. How many other police forces are there? Ten thousand? Some large number. Most of these police forces seem to have it right. They do not arrest dark skinned people for minor traffic violations. They do not get into fights with women who are merely venting. (I learned from my wife many years ago that women do a lot of venting, especially her, and I should not take it as a personal insult.) Most policemen and women are trained not to get into arguments or fights with venting women (or men).
Suggestion No. 1: In the case of the police force in Texas, where the policeman got into an argument with an angry women about a turn signal, experienced police people from another Texas community should hold a seminar about how to deal with and ignore angry venting women. Don't think you have to subdue someone who is simply expressing anger or frustration. Follow the Christian teaching of turning the other cheek. The officer involved in arresting the woman should participate in the seminar, of course.
Suggestion No.2: If they do not already do so, persons in charge of educating and training the police should provide courses in anger management. If there is anger in an encounter between an individual and the police, let the police not let their anger influence their actions. Rodney King pissed off the police who finally stopped his car and arrested him and they expressed their anger by beating him. Again, Christian teaching should have prevailed.