Authority crisis roils America: Police abuse, torture and authoritarianism run amok

There is so much thats horrifying about whats now simply called the torture report, the redacted summary of the Senate Intelligence Committees investigation into years of unforgivable CIA abuse post-9/11. But one thing that recurs disturbingly often is anal rape imagery: examples of rectal feeding, of rectal exams that used excessive force, and at least one instance, according to the report, of threatened sodomy with a broomstick.

Am I the only one who thought about Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant who was not just threatened but actually sodomized with a broomstick by the New York Police Departments Justin Volpe in 1997? The torture reports release, in the wake of grand juries failing to indict police officers who killed unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and right here in New York, where Louima was tortured, reminds us of the danger of unaccountable state power.

Yet an undercurrent of authoritarianism in American culture and a particular American deference to authority figures who are supposed to protect us threatens to let it go unchecked.

To be fair, many Americans are horrified by the torture reports revelations. And many Americans believe police officers should be held accountable when they use excessive force and harm or kill Americans, of any race. But theres a disturbing impulse evident lately, to excuse abuses of power on the part of those who are charged with protecting us, whether cops or the post-9/11 CIA. I dont care what we did! former Bush flack Nicolle Wallace shrieked on Morning Joe Monday. And she spoke for too many Americans. (Though not for her former boss Sen. John McCain.)

I watched the debate over the torture report unfurl all day Tuesday, online, in print and on television. All the coverage focused on a few questions: whether Sen. Dianne Feinstein is right that torture didnt work; whether the report might produce blowback by our enemies; whether the CIA is being scapegoated for Bush administration decisions. There was shockingly little emphasis on the fact that torture is illegal and a war crime, banned by the Geneva Conventions, a U.N. Convention against torture ratified under a supportive Ronald Reagan, and by Title 18, Part I, Chapter 113C of theU.S.Code.

So much in the torture report should appall Americans, above and beyond the many details of depravity. CIA officials lied about who they had in custody. They lied about what they were doing. They destroyed evidence. They tortured two of their own informants. At least 20 percent of the people they detained, as examined by investigators, were held wrongfully. They paid $81 million to two psychologists who knew nothing about al-Qaida, terrorism or the war against them. They didnt fully brief President Bush until April 2006, after 38 of 39 detainees had already been interrogated.

This should be an issue that unites civil libertarians on the left and the right as should excessive force by police but the authoritarian impulse is stronger on the right. Libertarianism also seems overwhelmed by the prevailing resentment of President Obama, and the changing America that he represents. Still, its amazing: Even as wingnuts deride Obama as a fascist and a tyrant, they applaud excessive force by police officers and CIA officials.

Its also amazing that its taken two years to get a redacted executive summary of the torture report released. Lets remember that were merely talking about sharing information about the Senates investigation into torture, not about indicting or punishing anyone. At least grand juries considered whether to indict Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo in the killings of Mike Brown and Eric Garner. There has been no such process regarding CIA torturers.

Which is not to say the grand jury process in Ferguson or Staten Island delivered justice to those mens families. Nor have the families of John Crawford and 12-year-old Tamir Rice, African-Americans killed by police while holding toy guns, even gotten a fair and clear accounting of how their sons died. Young black men are 21 times more likely to be shot by police than white men, yetwhite peoples confidence in police fairness, and doubts about cops racial bias, have never been higher, while African-Americans is understandably at a record low.

Thankfully Abner Louimas attackers were punished; Volpe is serving 30 years in prison, and Louima won a settlement of $8.7 million the largest police brutality settlement in New York history at the time. The Louima rape happened to take place under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has emerged as the chief defender of cops who kill in the last two weeks. Giulianis career is an example of how the authoritarian impulse in American politics often prevails.

Continue reading here:
Authority crisis roils America: Police abuse, torture and authoritarianism run amok