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Examined thought is how critical thinkers test their reasoning process against logical standards. To reason well, you must know the parts of the reasoning system and know how those parts interact to make a sound conclusion. In addition, you need the will and the motivation to follow sound reason principles persistently.
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| April 14, 2008 | ||||
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Drag racing police officers teach the wrong lesson. Some teenager drivers compete in drag races on public streets that sometimes cause accidents, injuries and deaths. Police officers competing in drag races with teenagers seem an unlikely solution for this problem. Nevertheless, Vallejo California Police announced they will compete in drag race competition with teenagers at Infineon Raceway.
Organizers of Top the Cop, a San Francisco Bay area program, claim it provides a safe, legal way for teenage drivers to satisfy their need for speed. In addition, they claim the races allow young people to hang out and become friends with cops. They and police officer may mean well, but I am unconvinced those drag races produce more positives than negatives for the community. Other urges besides the need for speed motivate teenage drivers to drag race on public streets. They also express their rebelliousness. Police officers and their squad cars symbolize societal authority. Organizers satisfy those rebellious inclinations by naming their program "Top The Cop" and by staging drag races between uniformed officers in their squad cars and teenagers. Police departments should not indulge rebellious teenagers’ fantasy to outdrive a squad car and Top the Cop. They certainly should not suggest to other teenagers without this rebellious nature that racing police cars is appropriate recreation. Indulging antisocial attitudes legitimizes them. The correct response is to stress their inappropriateness and treat the cause. Probably they do not see it this way, but police officers take advantage of teenagers’ vulnerability when they use the racetrack environment to convince them they are friends. This uneven relationship teaches young people a distorted idea of friendship where one person has all the authority and the other only the choice to comply. A Vallejo Police Dept. Youth Services officer wrote, "This event also provides the Department with an excellent opportunity to recruit for our Police Explorer and Police Cadet Programs as it caters to high school students, some of whom may want to pursue a career in law enforcement after graduation." Independent thinking young people will see thorough this pretense and end more cynical of police contact. I refused to take part in Police Athletic League (PAL) programs when I was a teenager. I did not resent authority. I played on school varsity teams. Like most young people, I looked at police officers with their fancy uniforms and fast cars as glamorous. Nevertheless, I believed they should confine their supervision to lawbreakers and kids in reform school, now called juvenile hall. Even my immature mind understood that relationships with police agencies are unidirectional with them always in control. I did not want this controlling authority mixed in my recreation. My youthful conclusion that law enforcement had no place in children’s recreation grew stronger as I matured and learned more about democracy. The National Police Athletics/Activities Leagues, Inc. states a mission to prevent juvenile crime and violence by providing civic, athletic, recreational and educational opportunities and resources to PAL Chapters. This mission statement reveals a presumption that all children are potential criminals without police involvement. This is not a healthy foundation for young people’s programs. Every law enforcement controlled youth program admits they intend the program to build better relationships with young people. Translation: they create them mainly for law enforcement purposes and secondarily for children’s needs. Surprisingly, few people see the exploitive nature of this relationship. Instead, police officers should build goodwill in the community by fair and respectful treatment of residents during on-duty contacts. There is a growing social trend to generalize some children’s bad behavior to the group. This trend encourages adults to act as children’s friends and to provide them entertainment to prevent them from misbehaving. It is not a coincidence this trend and its presumptions mirror law enforcement’s philosophy of controlling children’s conduct with organized activities. Rewarding bad conduct by approving it in a different setting does not solve the problem and it is a partial and temporary fix at best. Granting young artists the permission to paint their creations on public buildings they previously defaced with graffiti works until they cover all the walls. Then, the community has the same artists without self-discipline who do not respect other people’s property rights. Top The Cop drag racing may stop some public street racers, but not those who steal cars to race, or those who spurn contact with police authority. The best solution for misbehaving children is to hold them to conduct standards and accountable for their individual acts. Their parents and the community’s goal should be to teach them self-discipline and control over their impulses. Uniformed police officers drag racing in their squad cars with teenagers send a confusing message about suitable conduct and proper relationships. Contact Kenneth Brooks at P.O. B 882, Vallejo, CA 94590. opinion@ethicalego.com
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