International- The video of
George Floyd 's fatal arrest has led many to question why the three other officers involved didn't intervene to stop Derek Chauvin from kneeling on his neck. - Insider spoke to experts on
police culture, including former officers, who explained the norms that empower some cops to use force, and others to let it happen without reporting it. - Officers who intervene or report on their fellow cops are often ostracized and have their trustworthiness on the force questioned.
What many people have found troubling about George Floyd's death is how the three other officers at the scene failed to intervene.
Video of the fatal arrest shows now ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes, while two other officers held down the Black man's back and legs down and a fourth officer stood guard.
Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, while the three other officers have been accused of aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
Lawyers for two of the officers tried to explain their actions by saying they were just a few days into the job, and that they were unable to challenge Chauvin, their training officer and a 19-year veteran of the force.
But there is a well-documented culture in the police field that may also explain why they didn't speak up.
Insider spoke to experts in police behavior, who explained how this culture empowers some officers to use force, and prevents others from stepping in or reporting this behavior.
A troubling pattern
Police officers are often "ostracized" if they intervene when a fellow cop is using excessive force, or report on another officer for crossing a line, according to John Kleinig, an expert on police ethics at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
Kleinig says ratting on another officer, or simply calling out bad behavior, can lead to questions about that officer's trustworthiness.
Trust is especially important in policing, where officers need to feel like someone has their back in dangerous situations, Kleinig said.
Perhaps the most famous case is that of Frank Serpico, a New York City police detective who became a pariah for blowing the whistle about NYPD corruption in the 1960s and 70s.
He quit the force in 1971 when he was shot during a drug bust and fellow officers failed to immediately call for an ambulance. Serpico's story was turned into the 1973 Oscar-nominated movie — "Serpico" — starring Al Pacino in the title role.
Floyd's death has also brought light to a more recent case illustrating the police culture of silence.
The Buffalo Common Council recently passed a resolution asking the New York State Attorney General to look into the 2008 firing of Cariol Horne, a Black police officer who was punished after jumping on her white partner's back when he put a Black suspect in a chokehold during an arrest two years prior.
Horne was reprimanded for the incident, told she put her fellow officer's life at risk, and fired one year before qualifying for her pension.
The officer who performed the chokehold was later sentenced to four months in jail in connection to an unrelated case, in which he was accused of using excessive force while arresting four Black teens in 2009.
How the system works
There's also the case of Paul Manning, a police officer in Ontario, Canada, who on June 12 tweeted that he was punished for reporting on a colleague whom he saw punch a minor in the face, for seemingly no reason other than the fact that they had called him "a name."
After making his report, Manning said he was punished for failing to communicate with his fellow officer. He said he was then moved away from his team, and officers started refusing to work with him or offer backup when he responded to calls.
"My appraisal that year reflected incompetence and unworthiness of the position of constable. Every position or course I applied for I was refused. I continued to #whistleblow until the Chief told me 'You really have no concept of brotherhood, do you?'" he tweeted.
— (@mobinfiltrator) June 12, 2020
— (@mobinfiltrator) June 12, 2020
Manning told Insider he decided to tell his story after hearing the public debate after Floyd's death. He said some people started bringing up a common metaphor to defend the police: that not all cops are bad and that the perpetrators in cases like Floyd's are just a few "bad apples."
"I just want to show how the system works," he said. "To show that good apples don't have the opportunity to come forward. They don't have safeguards in place to protect them from reprisals."
The 'Blue Wall of Silence'
Kleinig said he believes something called the "Blue Wall of Silence" was at play in Floyd's arrest.
The term refers to the act of officers not reporting bad behavior committed by fellow cops, including in cases of police brutality. It is a common feature of police culture.
This extends to not questioning an officer's use of force in the middle of an arrest, Kleinig said.
"They don't intervene because it indicates that you're not really one of us. You're an outsider, we can't trust you. You might turn against us," Kleinig said.
Thomas Nolan, a 27-year veteran of the Boston Police Department who now works as a sociology professor, agreed that the blue wall of silence is prevalent in many police departments, but said what happened in Minneapolis was "inconceivable" and actually a violation of the police code.
He said that while police officers almost never rat on each other, they should feel free to intervene when they think another officer is in the wrong.
"What happened out on the street, that shouldn't have happened, because part of the cop culture is that — while we won't speak about or second guess someone's use of force —we would never do something that put another guy in trouble," Nolan said.
"That's what Chauvin did in using excessive force in a public place. He put those other three cops in jeopardy and that's a serious violation of the code, as evidenced by the fact that the other three got fired.
"I'm surprised and continue to be surprised and outraged that someone didn't just go over and pull this guy off, given the level of resistance — or lack of resistance — that Mr. Floyd was offering to the officers," he said.
'Not what Robert Peel envisaged'
Kleinig, Nolan, and Manning listed some potential changes that could help address this culture of silence and prevent deaths like Floyd's from happening in the future.
"Ultimately, what needs to happen is we seriously consider reimagining the entire role we have historically seen police officers occupy in cities in the US," Nolan said.
When asked about defunding the police — an option being pushed by protesters and some city councilors that would involve redistributing part of police funding to other community organizations — Nolan said: "I think it's fair to question the resources and tax dollars we have historically been allocating to the police without question or evaluation."
Manning said defunding the police "is a really good idea."
"We definitely need to change up the policing model. Kneeling on people's necks and killing them is not what Robert Peel envisaged," Manning said, referring to the Victorian-era British prime minister considered to be the father of modern policing.
Kleinig said there should be "concrete protections" for whistleblowers, and that police departments should work more with other organizations who may be better equipped to deal with issues like homelessness.
Kleinig also said police should be "trained to deescalate."
"Deescalation has been far underused in police work. Deescalation often sounds like backing off and so police do not like to back off, because backing off means that somebody else has in some way succeeded in challenging their authority," Kleinig said.
Backed by the union
Kleinig also pointed to police unions as one of the biggest issues when it comes to the current culture of silence.
In some departments, police unions have negotiated so that authorities have to wait 30 days before they can interview an officer involved in an incident under investigation, he said.
"By which time of course, the police have had a chance to fix up their story," he said.
While Kleinig said he supports police unions, he admits that some have grown too powerful.
"What's happened, as sometimes happens with other unions, is they've increasingly expanded their range of interests and some of those interests are not in the interests of the public, who the police are expected to serve," Kleinig said.
The future of the status quo
Ultimately, Nolan and Kleinig were doubtful about the likelihood of real change, despite the widespread protests.
Nolan said he "can't be convinced that it's possible" for the police culture to change.
Kleinig said he fears that "all the hopefulness" for change in the current moment will "only very minimally be met."
"It's very, very unlikely that some of the major changes that people want will occur," Kleinig said.
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- 8 nonwhite corrections officers say their supervisor forbade them from guarding Derek Chauvin, saying they would be a 'liability,' according to discrimination lawsuit
- The deaths of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks have soured the already strained relationship between Black people and the police
- A female protester who was shoved to the street by a police officer testified at the New York attorney general's hearing: 'Where are the good cops I keep hearing of?'
- Disgusted, embarrassed, and ready to defund the police: Here's how some Black police officers across the nation feel about George Floyd's death