The Problem of Injustice, Corruption, Hyper Vigilance, Violence & Qualified Immunity in Law Enforcement
Diana Delaney
Harm Reduction in Policing & Law Enforcement
A Work in Progress and Progressivism.
Bully Culture, Resulting Trauma and Ways to Prevent and Mediate Harm in Crisis and Family Discord and Domestic Abuse Situations.
What is this about?
Harm Reduction in Crisis Intervention Policing. Harm Reduction in Domestic Abuse Policing
Why is this important?
The Cycle of Bullying, Hazing and Abuse with Intimidation and Interrogation. The Very Expensive Cost of doing more harm than good/help on an Individual and Collective Level.
Where?
In this municipality of Wilmington, In this state of Massachusetts, In this Nation of the USA
When and How?
The Time is Now. Implementation of new policies and procedures for improvement and the re-development of Best Practices with the informed consent of the citizenry.
Bias, Stigma and Discrimination
What are Bias, Stigma and Discrimination?
(oxford dictionary definitions)
Bias - prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.
Stigma - a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.
Discrimination - the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. [and disability].
Why is this important to become aware of?
The onerous and responsibility has been placed on those who have been stigmatized and discriminated against to correct the systematic actions and inequities and to form a case that proves the acts of abuses of power, both systematically and in relationships, are problematic and harmful to those being discriminated against, targeted with interrogation and intimidation and stigmatized. The burden of truth has been placed on those with less power systematically, on those without representation, and those without advocates as the odd individual out.
The Pain Cycle of Bullying & Hazing
What are Bullying, Hazing and Intimidation and Interrogation?
(oxford dictionary definitions, unless otherwise specified)
Bullying - to seek to harm, intimidate, or coerce (someone perceived as vulnerable).
Hazing - Hazing is any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them, regardless of a person's willingness to participate. There are three components that define hazing: It occurs in a group context. Humiliating, degrading, or endangering behavior (www.stophazing.org).
Intimidate - frighten or overawe (someone), especially in order to make them do what one wants.
Overawe- impress (someone) [Not in a Good Way] so much that they become silent or inhibited.
Intimidation - the action of intimidating someone, or the state of being intimidated.
Window of Tolerance
A person’s “Window of Tolerance” is the individual's scope, comfort and ability to maintain a sense of wellbeing in life. The Window of Tolerance is unique to each individual.
I liken this to the spoon theory in chronic illness and our abilities to perform and engage and how while living with a chronic illness, we may have less resources (spoons) available for use during each interaction, experience, day, week and month. Our resources may vary depending on other life stressors and the impact of those stressors.
The Window of Tolerance is the place where an individual is feeling okay, stable, able, and has executive functioning ability.
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines executive function as:
the group of complex mental processes and cognitive abilities (such as working memory, impulse inhibition, and reasoning) that control the skills (such as organizing tasks, remembering details, managing time, and solving problems) required for goal-directed behavior
Trauma happens and occurs when an individual, family, community or population has been pushed beyond the Window of tolerance into The Tipping Point.
The Tipping Point
The Tipping Point is when you are thrown out of your comfort zone by an impact on your body, mind, and/or daily life existence that has an effect of pushing you forcefully outside your comfort zone. This is a phase transition that leads to things like shock, trauma, fragmentation and a loss of self, loss of a sense of time, a place where it’s difficult to think and respond and may even be difficult to remember details and an individual may not even be able to communicate their experience when they are pushed to the tipping point or beyond it. The Tipping Point Results in a loss of Executive Functioning.
Pentagon Model & Octagon Model
More on this soon
Compounding Trauma
Think about the effects of a car crash on public safety, and the levels of damage that can be done by the severity and impact of the car crash.
Someone can be in a low impact car accident that does little damage to the vehicles and the inhabitants of the car. On the surface the damage is small. The impact of the crash can vary depending on the experiences of the individuals involved in the crash.
Has the individual been in a more severe crash in the past? If so, depending on the individual's window of tolerance the individual may be more impacted internally than the obvious small surface damage of a scratch or a dent. If the individual is of a vulnerable or marginalized group, the impact on that individual may be more disconcerting in ways that are not perceived on the surface level.
What someone may have experienced throughout life that you may not see in front of you is:
Potentially A History Akin to a 40 Car High Speed Crash Pile Up of:
Defamation, Gossip, Blame, Scapegoating, Bullying
A Past History of Help/Interventions built on Misconstrued “Facts” and False Reports.
Abuse based on Hearsay and lack of Representation and Advocacy
in our Systematic Approach.
Not seeing, acknowledging and Addressing underlying truths - Examples such as: Exposure to Childhood Abuse, Assaults, Violence, Trafficking, Stalking, Murder Threats, Threats of Assault, Hazing, Sexual Harassment
What’s been covered up, unseen, shamed, silenced, unaccounted for?
History of the Victim/Survivor - Reasons for Behavioral Response are Physical
Prior Police Abuse - Systematic Authoritarian Abuse and Triggers for Compounding Trauma. (Experiential education in bias).
Forcing Change, No Consent, No Informed Consent
Coercion under Duress is Re-traumatizing - Relational Overwhelm
Compounding Trauma and Illness
Displacement from Home, Homelessness, An abuse situation without the resources to escape.
Amplification of Agitation via Intimidation and Interrogation
Current Authoritarian Models of Policing, Locally, Statewide and Nationally are Sowing seeds of Discord, Mistrust, Reinforcing a Pain Cycle for Individuals, Families and Communities.
What is Safety?
Safety - the condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury.
Help - make it easier for (someone) to do something by offering one's services or resources.
Helping - the action of helping someone to do something; assistance.
(synonym: support/supportive).
Harm - physical injury, especially that which is deliberately inflicted. damage the health of. have an adverse effect on.
Adversarial, Intimidating, Interrogating - those are not terms or ways of being and engaging that foster safety, help and trust amongst individuals, families and communities. To simplify Help that does not help is not help. Help that Harms is not help.
What is help in an empowering, supportive context is defined by the recipient of the help and support.
How Helpful was the Help?
Was the intervention helpful or harmful? Was the person engaging the intervention qualified? Was the help within the scope of practice of the first responder or law enforcement providing the help?
Was the person engaged in the intervention a psychologist or a psychiatrist or trained in family and domestic crisis and abuse? What are the costs in the present and future of sending individuals to intervene in situations that are outside their scope of practice, training, education and skill sets? What are the costs of using authoritarian interrogation practices in the present and future?
Was the help and support something that came at a high cost to the recipient in the past, present or the future? What is the short term impact of the help? What is the long term impact of the help? What is the cost of remediating and repairing the help that actually did further harm and compounds trauma? What are the metrics of the policing organization to determine what is helpful vs. what is harmful?
Harms Caused - Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Implications and Impacts
Abuse of Authority and Intimidation results in breaking the opportunities for building
bridges and relationships in the community with citizens.
Behavioral Health of Police Officers
Safety and Injury
The Dangers of Qualified Immunity - Beyond Bullying and Hazing - Law Enforcement training causes hyper vigilance which leads to reactive behavior that instigates and escalates increasing fear and agitation and intimidation via interrogation.
A local Example - Here is a video of an officer from Massachusetts who brags about hitting protesters with his car, and who also has a very shady past behavioral history that includes sexual assault
Indicators and Evidence of the Behavioral Health of Police Departments & Policing in Massachusetts & Nationally.
Sadly there are endless examples of so-called “one bad apple” reports, locally in Massachusetts and Nationally across the United States.
What is the actual full expression commonly known regarding bad apples?
Statistics on Professionals with the History of Committing the Highest Incidents of Domestic Abuse - Police and Military Professionals (more information to come)
Promoting Help and Safety by engaging and enacting harm reduction efforts and creating best practices rooted and centered in Harm Reduction
Ways to Prevent and Mediate Harms
Co Regulation - Example of video of police interview.
Example of Co-Regulation in Policing, What does Co-Regulation Look Like?
The Impact of Trauma on Victims of Domestic Violence
Slowing down process, providing advocacy and representation not affiliated with law enforcement and/or individuals without qualified immunity
Preventing the Negative Impact (Car Crash Model) - Not engaging in humiliation, intimidation and interrogation inflaming and escalating and causing further agitation.
Gas Full Throttle vs. Gas on the Breaks
The cost of authoritarian abuse in policing and punitive psychiatry to victims and survivors
Chronic Illness in Victims and Survivors
Health Care Costs
Mental Emotional and Physical Costs on the Family
Systemic Costs
Break Down In Community Trust
Further issues of Bullying
Authoritarian Examples seen by future generations and abuses of power Replicated.
How to stop the cycle of Bullying and Trauma
Help that is Specifically Trained in the area of expertise they are attempting to help with.
Restorative Practices
An Advocate present during every intervention & ending interrogation and intimidation
Boston Police Commissioner - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWazPJSmWco
How I relate to the Boston Police Commissioner - Police Abuse
Knowing in a direct experiential and very personal way that “It can be better.” Policing Can be better. Police can be doing a better Job.
Flow Charts
Escalation vs. De-Escalation, The Tolerance Window, The Tipping Point, SIBAM and TREATIES
(more to come)
Why I have shared this regardless of being personally targeted with police intimidation:
I Was Taught By Law Enforcement: If I See something, to say something.
I Feel, Believe and Know, In My Heart Mind and Body, It Is My Responsibility as a Peer Advocate in Reporting Back and Reflecting My Experience to Help Others Experience Improved Intervention, Care and Treatment.
I created this training outline and gathered references and examples of how things can be better, in hopes for better outcomes for individuals in future police intervention situations in this municipality and at a state and national level.
Standing my Ground is not taking the easy route. My taking action to address issues despite it causing me stress, fear, and pain, is change agency and this change agency is on behalf of the current and future generations.
One small shaking voice, still reporting, still showing up in the ways that I am educated, skilled and able. This training has been provided as a public service and offered to you at her own expense and free of charge, by Diana Eileen Delaney.
References and Resources:
Coming Home to Self: Re-connecting after Developmental Trauma with Barbara Collier A 75-MINUTE EXPERIENTIAL SESSION with The Embody Lab 11/13/22
Healing Trauma: From Fragmentation to Embodiment with Dr. Albert Wong with The Embody Lab 11/13/22 (Drawing from the work Dr. Dan Seigel regarding the Window of Tolerance)
Cultural Landscapes of Secure Relationships through Indigenous Approaches to Therapy with Dr. Alayne Mikahere-Hall - A 75 Minute Experiential Session with The Embody Lab 11/13/22
https://www.theembodylab.com/schedule/1-day-summit-somatic-attachment-therapy