The media and political establishment has turned simple words into political propaganda by routinely misrepresenting them and disregarding their real definition. It is now routine to insult opponents and attribute bad characteristics to them simply because they don't like them like little children calling each other names without understanding why; only they almost certainly understand it better and do it for propaganda purposes.
This doesn't mean that I agree with what Tremaine Wilbourn did or that it was justified but it wasn't cowardly; and a large sheriff handcuffing a small child for misbehaving should be considered far more cowardly since that child doesn't pose any real threat to him and any rational person should see that schools need more funding and people qualified to handle children. What the media and political establishment fail to mention is an enormous amount of research showing that early child abuse leads to escalating violence and that there is a strong possibility that it might be a major contributing factor why Tremaine Wilbourn might have become violent and if not corrected the treatment this sheriff used against this small child might teach him that coercion and violence is the appropriate way for authority figures to solve their problems.
Unfortunately, thanks to an enormous amount of propaganda in many parts of the country there are a lot of people in a position of power that don't realize this and go along with the program holding those with the least political power accountable for trivial things while declining to challenge those with power which would take real courage.
According to Dictionary.com the definition of coward is "a person who lacks courage in facing danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc.; a timid or easily intimidated person." The Kentucky sheriff's deputy cited in School resource officer sued for allegedly handcuffing children with ADHD 08/04/2015 fits that definition by handcuffing small child much more than Tremaine Wilbourn who killed a police officer, who also happened to be a marine and Iraq war veteran, cited in Memphis Cop Killing Suspect in Custody, Says He's 'Not a Coward': Officials. 08/03/2015
Right or wrong it takes a lot more courage to challenge powerful forces with weapons and political power than children.
Referring to those that attack us or challenge authorities as cowards has now become routine and in some cases the establishment also refers to people they disagree with including environmentalists, Occupy Wall Street protesters and teachers unions teach as terrorists. The people often criticized as "cowards" or "terrorists" by the establishment often have much more courage than some of the people they call "Heroes" because they do what they're told and obey orders without question. They were also quick to refer to people that bombed two churches as cowards without knowing the details, New Mexico church bombings the work of 'a coward,' governor says. 08/03/2015
Both the bombing and killing of a police officer are clearly inappropriate, or outrageous, even though they aren't cowardly but calling them cowardly and appealing to peoples emotions without trying to find out the root causes of this does nothing to understand it and figure out how to prevent it from happening again, while reviewing how child abuse and lack of resources will do much more, yet it is almost completely absent from the media or the political discussion.
I reviewed how child abuse and corporal punishment leads to escalating violence in several previous posts including Does child abuse and bullying lead to more violence? and Child abuse and bullying link in study long over due; unfortunately even though there was an enormous amount of research in the academic world which can be found at good libraries or on the internet, some of which I cited, the media and political establishment has been ignoring this for years while they argue for cuts to school funds and social programs.
Instead they make policy decisions based primarily on the ideologies of the elite which often enables them to increase their profits without addressing many social problems that are contributing to many problems including the ones cited.
This abusive upbringing may lead children to be desensitized to violence and think it is an appropriate to solve problems so when some people do take courageous risks that involve violence it may be for the wrong reasons or in ineffective manners. And when it comes to challenging inappropriate authority they may lack the courage to do so or if they do they might use in a violent manner.
Early abusive child rearing tactics like the one the sheriff seems to be using is a major contributing factor to escalating violence and has also taught people to blindly obey orders without question, which could be considered a cowardly act, in extreme cases. Alice Miller writes about this in The Political Consequences of Child Abuse where she discusses how abusive upbringing taught Germans to blindly obey orders and enabled Hitler to control the masses while committing atrocities. This is the most extreme historical cases but there are plenty of other cases where people haven't had the bravery to stand up to authoritarian powers ordering them to participate in atrocities for false reasons.
We need more people to speak out when our government is fighting illegal wars or implementing policies that are clearly counter productive when it comes to reducing crime including violence crime, and both of these have taken place. Although it is highly regrettable that Sean Bolton was shot, he should not be considered as much of a hero as the media might be inclined to portray him. The war in Iraq was based on lies yet he presumably followed orders without question then came back and continues to follow orders in the war on drugs which is also being fought based on lies and they're both a disaster.
It would take real courage to speak out against these, but those that do are routinely called cowards while those that blindly obey orders are called heroes.
In the late eighties Congress had hearings that led to The Kerry Report formally called "Selections from the Senate Committee Report on Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy" chaired by Senator John F. Kerry which exposed how our government was at best looking the other way while the Contras ran drugs to finance their terrorist activities to try to regain control of Nicaragua after the Congress made it illegal to fund them and Gary Webb author "Dark Alliance" reported on more activities along these lines. Previous research including a lot done by Alfred McCoy exposed how they also did the same thing with heroin dating back to the Vietnam war and continuing through the second gulf war and presumably it is still going on today.
Unfortunately few people working for the government had the courage to speak out or refused to participate in either the illegal gulf war or the counterproductive or selective drug war, including Sean Bolton when it counted, and this is what enables outrageous polices to continue. This is a major reason why many violent activities continue.
One of the leading reasons why so few people, especially those working for the government have the courage to speak out against these practices is the authoritarian methods used to indoctrinate children Alice Miller describes and Philip Greven also researches one of the leading authoritarian child rearing experts from the nineteenth century Daniel Gottlieb Moritz Schreber in "Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse" 1991 who taught strict obedience and even recommended using restrictive devices that might have some similarities to the way hand cuffs were used on this child.
These abusive tactics were used to control his own children and one of them committed suicide and the other was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. Both Philip Greven and Alice Miller among other researchers demonstrated how these abusive child rearing tactics lead to escalating violence and authoritarianism. These same researchers also studies the reasons why both this little boy and Tremaine Wilbourn might have been acting out in a violent manner and demonstrated that it is much more effective to intervene early, which would be much easier for the third grader if they listened to more qualified researchers instead of the authoritarian people they seem to be listening to. Even after this became public they defend the actions of this police officer and try to portray him as a qualified cop to handle this situation.
Other good researchers include Barbara Coloroso and James Garbarino and when investigating similar incidents in the past they have indicated that time to cool off and inquiring about how the boy was doing at home might have been a much more effective way of handling the situation. Unfortunately with so many cuts to school funds it is far more common to diagnose children with ADHD and give them medication. James Garbarino has cited numerous examples where this has been much more effective in teaching children how to handle their problems without acting out and address problems at home in a non-punitive manner.
The tactics that this police officer is using against this child is part of the abuse that leads to escalating violence and there is a good chance that Tremaine Wilbourn also went through similar abuse, and as he said in news reports black people always have to put up with much more harassment from police and other reports also indicate taht black people are much more likely to be treated with corporal punishment in the states that still allow it in schools. these same states also have among the highest murder rates and it is clear that the corporal punishment they use or the coercive restraints this officer contributes to this violence.
Without further research I can't guarantee that Tremaine Wilbourn or this child might have been subject to abuse at home that led to escalating violence but it is a strong possibility based on past research, and when Dorothy Otnow Lewis investigated many murders in prison close enough she found evidence of abuse in all of them and often backed it up with hospital records or other evidence.
It is also likely that both the Kentucky police officer and Sean Bolton were trained in an authoritarian manner that led them to obey orders and use coercive methods to control the situation or attempt to control the situation. David Couper wrote about how Hazing and Bullying is often used in some Police Academy. This is almost certainly a major reason why police often blindly obey orders and use tactics that often lead to escalating violence. Reviewing this training and reforming educational activities before it becomes necessary to call police will do much more than what the traditional media and political establishment are discussing.
Unfortunately when the good child rearing experts or police reform advocates, whether it is the ones I cited or not, get attention from the media it is very brief and quickly forgotten while the ideologues with political connections get much more opportunities to repeat their propaganda over and over again. This means that in many cases only communities with active people paying attention listen to the best research at the grassroots level and act on it. many of these communities probably don't even have police in schools at all except in case of major emergencies, which are less likely if they educate children better.
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