The Washington Post has been keeping a tally of the number of people shot by the police in the United States. Based on their count, 8,166 people of various races and ethnicities have been killed since 2015. Over 1,000 were shot in 2022 alone. The Post isn’t the only organization to note these disturbing figures. Even the “Anadolu Agency,” an arm of the Turkish government, has kept a timeline of the African Americans killed by police since 2014. At this point, we are all very familiar with their names. They include but are not limited to Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Breanna Taylor, and George Floyd. Sadly, we must add Tyre Nichols to the list. Nichols, a Black motorist, was brutally beaten by members of the Memphis Police Department on January 10, 2023. While the details of his killing are still under investigation, the country grapples with the implications of another senseless death. From a sociological perspective, it is worth considering whether these deaths represent more than just issues of bad policing. Do they speak to broader cultural issues at play in the United States? What role does our culture play in perpetuating these horrendous acts of violence?
Santos
Culture is defined as the socially learned and shared ideas, behaviors, and material components of a society. Typically, when we think about culture, we often think of it in terms of the fun aspects of society. Examples include the language people speak, the food they eat, their style of dress, and their religious beliefs. In reality, culture is so much more than that. Material culture consists of the physical artifacts that represent components of society. Firearms, pepper spray, tasers, batons, body cameras, handcuffs, combat gear, armored vehicles, and even grenade launchers are all part of the material culture of police departments across the United States. Many people have questioned whether military-grade weaponry in the hands of local police is doing more harm than good. Arguably, treating fellow citizens like enemy combatants enhances an “us against them” mentality in communities nationwide.
Material culture has its nonmaterial counterpart. Nonmaterial culture comprises the ideas and symbols that represent components of society. This includes our language, customs, philosophies, morals, and knowledge. In essence, what we say to each other, how we treat each other, and the beliefs that undergird our existence. With hate crimes on the rise in the United States and violence in movies, sports, music, and video games being foundational to our ideas of fun and entertainment, one cannot help but consider the role nonmaterial culture has in aspects of our society being broken.
BOLOVTSOVA
As a country, we operate under laws, a system of formal and legal rules enforced by the state. Ideally, these laws encourage group conformity and help maintain social stability. But what happens if the people tasked to enforce the laws violate them? Ideal culture, the ideals and values that a society professes to believe, would say that the “thin blue line” so often associated with policing is nothing more than a reference to support for law enforcement. But as we have seen in the countless cases of citizens getting killed in the act of just being alive, law enforcement doesn’t always live up to ideal culture. Real culture, the actual behavior of members of society, is not so cut and dry. Sometimes, law enforcement uses that “thin blue line” to protect their own, even when they are known to have done wrong. This behavior further emphasizes the notion mentioned above of us versus them. Regardless of race or ethnicity, real culture tells us that sometimes police officers are wrong. But how does one police the police?
