Seattle Confidential

By Laura Barcella, AlterNet. Posted June 15, 2005.

Norm Stamper is poised to become a very unpopular man -- among conservative law enforcement sorts, anyway.

The retired 34-year police veteran is first to admit to -- but not apologize for -- the ways in which he has alienated fellow cops, from his unusually touchy-feely leadership style (focusing on progressive, demilitarized community policing) to advocacy for decriminalizing drugs and prostitution.

And don't forget the whole '99 WTO protests thing. Yep, it's that Norm Stamper -- the former Seattle police chief who oversaw the tear gas-and-handcuffs-happy chaos that ensued after a few thousand peaceful protestors became, well, not so peaceful.

With the publication of his book, Breaking Rank (Nation Books), Stamper is back in the line of fire. In this part-memoir, part-polemic, he decries the state of modern law enforcement and calls for its reform. With sensational chapter titles such as "Why White Cops Kill Black Men" and "Sexual Predators in Uniform," Stamper is clearly unafraid of attracting attention. But he backs up these teasers with thoughtfully weighed opinions and personal anecdotes, many of them reinforced by research.

The author reflects on his own experiences as an officer to illustrate the ways in which America's police force is rotting from the inside out, corrupted by an interior culture of institutionalized racism, misogyny and homophobia. But while effectively ripping the police world apart, Stamper manages to remain honest about his own role in the "boys' club." He confesses to some unsavory, stereotypical-cop behaviors in his early days, from emotionally abusing his wife to knocking perps unconscious. And he's upfront about career regrets (e.g., the WTO debacle, for which he resigned).

Stamper spoke with AlterNet about his ideas for police reform, and the wide-ranging ways it would benefit America, from his home on Orcas Island, Wash.

AlterNet: What kinds of responses to Breaking Rank have you gotten so far?

Norm Stamper: Early reactions have been almost uniformly favorable. I'm afraid to say that, because I don't know what's around the bend. I've had people call and tell me that it brought them to tears in sections; people that know me but didn't know about some of the incidents that transpired [during] my 34-year career. But I also got very positive reactions to the agenda, which is really what I was hoping for.

Your agenda is somewhat controversial.

It's off-the-charts controversial, and in no time, as soon as folks get an opportunity to read it, I'll hear about it.

Have you heard from any fellow cops?

Only indirectly. The chapter entitled "Why White Cops Kill Black Men" produced a response from the president of the Police Guild in Seattle, like, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" You've just got to read the chapter to get an answer, whether he likes it or not.

I've heard others say, "Oh, this kind of stuff never happened," and all I can do is shake my head at that, because it did happen. It happens far less than it did in 1966 -- the racism, the sexism, the homophobia -- but it's still there, and it's naive, at best, to deny that it exists.

Even those departments [that] have really done measured and effective work over the last three decades to address some of the most intractable issues -- of institutionalized racism and so forth -- you've got to be constantly on alert for signs that our rank and file officers are doing the wrong things, setting bad examples.

When did you start to become politicized regarding the law enforcement field?

Fourteen months into my career. I had made what we commonly refer to as an attitude arrest -- I didn't like the guy, so I arrested him. I wish I could put it in a prettier way, but the fact is that he challenged my authority. He was 19, and I was 22. I stopped him for driving slightly over the speed limit. I really didn't have strong justification to stop him in the first place.

He got out of the car and immediately gave me a ration of shit, and [the] little part inside my brain that was becoming accustomed to this clicked. I [started] trying to find a reason to bust him, and I did. To call it a shaky arrest is to put myself in a charitable light.

What was the reason for the arrest?

I arrested him for being drunk in a public place. Of course, we decriminalized public intoxication absent of other...criminal behavior many years back. But in those days, it was a crime. It was a bailable offense -- if you pay your $29 bail, you don't go to court, and that's the end of it.

Laura Barcella is an associate editor at AlterNet.

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