Things They Should Invent: ways for civilians to de-escalate interactions with police officers

Before the G20 happened, I was thinking of ways that people demonstrators could de-escalate an attempted provocation of the crowd, whether by agents provocateurs or just regular people who get swept up in the energy of the crowd.

What surprised me most during the actual G20 is to what extent uniformed police officers acting in an official capacity were the ones escalating the situation! Kettling, banging batons on shields, charging people with lines of riot police and sometimes even horses, mass arrests regardless of why a person was in the area...

So it got me thinking that we, as civilians, need a way to de-escalate police officers. People can generally de-escalate in any other area in life as part of basic social skills, but somehow the uniform makes it more difficult. We need to work on this.

I've been thinking and thinking and thinking, and haven't come up with any solutions. However, I do have a few ideas that I think point us in the right direction, each coming from one of my few outright positive interactions with police officers. So I'm blogging what I've got, and hopefully someone can do something with it.

1.

Shortly after I first moved to Toronto, nearly a decade ago, I made my first solo foray downtown. I emerged from the subway, and there were police horses! Right there! I stopped in my tracks (being enough of a n00b that I didn't think of the people walking behind me) and totally squeed. "OMG, horsies!" Hand-clapping and jumping up and down may have been involved.

The police officers were clearly amused by my reaction, and one of them waved me over. "You can pet him if you want," he told me. So I tentatively put my hand right were the officer pointed (the horse was so big I had to reach up to pet him!) and gave the horse a couple of those too-gentle pats people give animals they aren't used to being around. He was warm and kind of muscly, and his hair felt more like human hair than I'd expected. Then the horse did a kind of horsey-snorty-head-shakey thing, I pulled my hand back, startled, and the police officer reassured me that it was okay.

In the aftermath of Queen's Park I found myself wondering if this memory was actually true. They'd been charging horses at people! How could I possibly have been allowed (even encouraged!) to pet a police horse? I googled around the idea some, and it turns out it's not uncommon. The police seem to see the horses as making them approachable to the public, and let people ask about them and interact with them as a public relations tool. It's intended to humanize the police to the public.

But I think that particular encounter I had might also have humanized me to those police officers. I wasn't a complete unknown, I wasn't just some no-good teenager. I was a person who liked and respected horses, just like them. I was innocent/sheltered/naive enough to be surprised and excited by the sight of a horse, in awe at the prospect of petting one, and slightly startled by a horse's snort. I'd been deferential when speaking to police officers and exceedingly gentle when touching a police horse. If something had gone down right that minute, those police officers would likely have seen me as an innocent to be protected, whereas if I hadn't had that horsey interaction they'd have been more likely to see me as just another of Kids Today.

And that's part of what we need to de-escalate police officers: we need to figure out how to humanize ourselves in their eyes. I don't know how to do this. I don't think a squee at the police horses would have been enough to stop them from charging at Queen's Park, although I do think I will be expressing any squee I happen to feel at any police animals in the future (if I am capable of still seeing them as animals rather than weapons, which I sincerely hope I am), just as a precautionary measure.

There's also the problem that we can't all take exactly the same measures to humanize ourselves to the police. First, if we all engage in the same action, it will give an inherently dehumanizing impression (just like how police in formation look like automatons, even if they look like just regular guys when they're just standing around on the street). Second, if it becomes formulaic, it will make us look like smarmy gits who are just trying to give the impression of looking like decent human beings, like when they tell you in customer service to use the customer's name. If someone greeted every police officer with a fake-cheerful "Good morning, Officer [check name tag] Lastname," they'd probably start wondering what that person's up to.

So I think what we need to figure out is which regular actions that people might normally engage in anyway humanize us to police officers and which ones dehumanize us, so we can humanize ourselves through actions that are within the range of normal for us.

2.

They were either putting up or taking down a construction crane in my neighbourhood, which meant a lot of traffic had to be redirected to the side streets. People were frustrated, cars were honking, night was falling, and there was a police officer on hand trying to keep order. I was on my way home, and stopped at the corner where he was standing to patiently wait for an opening to cross the street. He seemed a bit stressed and started complaining to me, bemoaning the ridiculousness of the traffic and impatience of the drivers. Then he stopped traffic so I could cross. Just so I could cross. There were no other pedestrians crossing my way at that time.

So why did he do this? I've been thinking about it, and I think it's that, at that particular moment, I wasn't the Other. The Other, from that police officer's perspective, was the cars. I was clearly not a car, so I was Non-Other. He was stressed and a bit pissed off, but it was the cars who were stressing him and pissing him off. I was clearly not a car, so I was clearly an innocent bystander.

This ties in with one of the more bizarre police statements in the wake of Queen & Spadina, saying that they kettled everyone because the people hadn't dissociated themselves from the black bloc. Which, of course, made everyone wonder "Isn't it obvious that we don't support them? How TF do we dissociate ourselves from the black bloc to their satisfaction? Who else are we supposed to be dissociating ourselves from that we don't know about?"

I think the police are expecting some specific behaviour from people who aren't part of the Other, to, in their own words, dissociate from the Other. But it is not at all obvious to us as civilians what this behaviour is. It was just blatently obvious that one day that I was Non-Other because I wasn't in a car.

Of course, the thing we have to be careful of in dissociating ourselves from the Other is to watch who we deem the Other. We don't want to declare other, perfectly law-abiding citizens Other just to protect ourselves.

3.

I was waiting in line at a store to pay for my purchases, but there was no one at the cash register. I and the lady in front of me waited around for a bit, craning our necks trying to see an employee, looking around for a little ding-y bell, speculating on where everyone is, until finally I joked "We should just shoplift these things. That will get someone paying attention to us." The lady in front of me laughed, and showed me her dry-cleaning bags. They were full of police uniforms. I was shocked:

Me: "You have to get those dry-cleaned? That sucks!"
Her: "We do get an allowance for it."
Me: "That's good! My jobs where I've had a uniform didn't do anything for us, so I'm glad to see at least some employers are sensible."
Her: "Plus it saves me going all the way down the basement to do laundry!"
Me: "Oh, I hear you on that! I've finally got in-suite laundry, although the rent is atrocious."

By the time the cashier materialized, we were comparing rents and amenities of various neighbourhood buildings and pondering the ethics of renting condos rather than apartments.

The reason that turned out to be a friendly conversation rather than an arrest for conspiracy to shoplift is that we had solidarity. We were both customers trying to get service. We were both workers wanting a fair deal from the employer. We were both busy professionals trying to fit in all our errands and chores. We were both local residents wanting good housing at a good price. We were entirely on the same team.

And that's another part what we need to be able to achieve to de-escalate police officers: solidarity. There was a youtube video floating around that did that, using editing and music to depict Queen & Spadina as a tragedy for all involved, with civilian and police alike having to stand in the rain for hours. We need to figure out how to duplicate that emotion on the ground, perhaps while being kettled and charged at.

One thing I noticed about the vibe of the G20 (singing O Canada at Queen & Spadina, "You're sexy, you're cute, take off that riot suit") is that the solidarity created often excluded the police officers. It was solidarity from them, not with them. I'm not saying this in a blamey way - I certainly don't know how to create solidarity with someone who's kettling me, charging at me, banging their baton on their shield! - but we do need to figure out how to stop that from happening, and instead create a shared solidarity like at Pride, where the cops all end up wearing rainbow beads.

And actually, all of these things come down to solidarity. The mounted police officers and my teenage self shared pro-horse solidarity. Even if they weren't squeeing about it, I'm certain they thought the horses were as awesome as I did. The traffic-directing officer and I were sharing non-car solidarity. The off-duty officer and I were fellow shoppers, neighbours and contemporaries, both just trying to get through the minutiae of everyday life.

I really don't know how to do this. It seems especially hard when the police are deliberately trying to destroy any solidarity and escalate the situation. The girl in the Officer Bubbles video seemed to be creating solidarity with the female police officer, but then Officer Bubbles came charging in and destroyed it in one fell swoop. But I really hope someone who knows stuff can figure out how to do it.

While googling around the idea of "how do I de-escalate a police officer?" I found a lot of information intended for police officers on how they can de-escalate civilians. They've done all kinds of psychology and figured out the motivation and the buttons to push in all kinds of situations. So maybe someone who knows stuff about psychology and police training can figure out how civilians can do the same to police so we can protect ourselves?

Maybe I should be finding books about police psychology, so at least I know what they think I'm thinking?