If a local culture does not value
education, such that the public education system is weak, and furthermore engages
in and enables aggressive behavior, even self-protective statements and efforts
can provoke aggressive responses based on ignorance. In such a culture,
authorities may be particularly unlikely to stem such aggression, and they may
even be inclined to engage in active or passive aggression against victims rather
than enforce laws and rules. For existence, police called on a noise complaint
at an apartment complex may willfully or unwittingly turn on the complainer not
due to lack of noise, but, rather, out of ignorance as to what constitutes a
residential disturbance, fear of confronting people who are disturbing others,
a desire to inhibit future calls or simply due the aggressor’s bidding by blaming
the victim for complaining. Besides indicating a corrupt, sordid police
culture, that of the locality itself would likely be compromised. During a
pandemic, such pathology might be especially transparent because it is clear
when people and authorities are not only not enforcing laws and organizational
policies geared to protecting both employees and customers, but also acting against public health by turning on the
victims. The case of Arizona and, more particularly, the Phoenix police
department, is particularly revealing.
The full essay is at "Dysfunctional Culture During a Pandemic."