Another day, another police brutality scandal … and another attempt to pretend it’s not about the authoritarian nature of our system.
By now, we’ve all seen the video of a United Airlines passenger, Dr. David Dao, being dragged from his seat by police and brutalized. According to his lawyer, he suffered a concussion, two lost teeth, and a broken nose. It seems he may need reconstructive surgery. He described the experience as more harrowing than fleeing Vietnam in 1975.
Police brutality stories have become almost routine, to the point that, while the Michael Brown story drew national outrage, the Philando Castile and Alton Sterling murders blew over much more quickly. But Dr. Dao’s beating has created a greater degree of outrage. Why?
Many have said that the United incident hits us more in the gut than other incidents of police brutality, and while this is true, it’s a surface-level analysis. In full, people are beginning to realize that conditions and treatment that they once thought were reserved for a certain group could happen to them. Sure, videos of police brutality have sparked outrage before, but largely, only from those who believed they could be victims of it. In a poll, 75% of whites said the police use the right amount of force, but only 33% of blacks agreed.
It used to be that you could reliably assume the police would only brutalize you if you belonged to a certain segment of society. But Dr. Dao was facing a problem that everyone has experience with: Lousy service from a business that has a functional monopoly. Who doesn’t have a complaint about their cable company or utilities or transit? So we could all relate to him. But we still thought the worst treatment was reserved for… well, you know who I’m referring to.
No, Dr. Dao is not white, but the people murdered by police are typically condemned as “criminals” by mass media. Trayvon Martin got bad grades. Michael Brown shoplifted. This one did pot. That one was a dropout. Don’t worry, middle class. Just keep buying into the culture and you’ll be fine. Hell, they’ve tried doing the same thing to Dr. Dao by digging up dirt from his past (no, I will not repeat it here and contribute to the vicious, unethical attacks). But it isn’t working in the public eye. When we see the video, we see a man demanding the same thing we all have: Getting, at the least, the things we pay for. And how was this demand answered? With a trip to the hospital.
It’s a heads up: You are not special to the state or the corporate world. Even if you are relatively well to do, and have paid for what you’re expecting (remember how the video of Mike Brown shoplifting was used to justify his murder?) you will only be treated with decency as long as it is profitable for the ruling class to do so. Even if you are “middle class,” your privilege can be stripped from you, and it will be as soon as the state and its corporate bosses can find a nickel in stomping your head.
Let’s go one step further, though: This authoritarian behavior doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It comes from the way the system operates. There has been much discussion of the poor decision-making of agents at the gate, and whether United had the legal authority to remove Dr. Dao in the first place. Again, these aren’t inaccurate criticisms. If United had chartered a plane for its must-fly employees, or simply upped the compensation it offered for volunteers to bump, it might have actually saved more money than it will now have to pay in a lawsuit. But the point isn’t United’s bad policies; it’s the foundation upon which these decisions are made.
Capitalism relies on a simple calculation: Money in – money out = profit. (Or M-C-M’, for the initiated.) Obviously, there are nuances to this, but no form of this calculation uses human life or human dignity in the equation. Every day, capitalists make the calculation, do it perfectly correctly, and people lose out. Wake up any morning and find one. Just today, a leaked email showed a pharmaceutical company destroyed lifesaving drugs to drive up the price. Every bomb dropped is dropped on the calculation of profit. Every CIA coup of a democratically elected government is inspired by profit. And whether or not the act serves its intended purpose, the intention is the problem. To focus on the poor decision-making of the gate agent of United 3411 is to say that the problem isn’t that our whole economic system has no interest in human life, but rather, that United failed to carry the 2. That’s a very narrow vision.
If you thought you were safe from the state and its bosses, you’re wrong. You may be less vulnerable than others. Yes, they will turn to the working-class black community first. But if, at any point, they see a moment to make a dollar off you, every privilege can be snatched from you. When analysts say the middle class is dying, they’re not wrong. And it’s because the middle class is, and always has been, an illusion, a sliver of the working class propped up by the rich to protect them from the outrage of the oppressed. In an era in which the poor are not organized, the rich see little need to keep a buffer. A doctor who owns his own practice is just as vulnerable as a black kid with bad grades and a history of shoplifting. Your life and health aren’t part of the equation.
Change can be made, but it can be made with a demand, and it requires working-class people – including the ephemeral “middle class” – to insist that human life becomes a factor, through regulation of these companies.
Mark Has Thoughts 