Hutch Report: Excessive Police Force By St. Louis Officers

Another video tape has emerged where police officers in St. Louis appear to be beating and kicking a suspect who is on the ground after a high speed chase. We have seen this activity many times before and rather than jumping to conclusions on either side about whether this is right or wrong, I think it's time to think about why it happens in the first place.

This is not caused by a situation of right, wrong or training, but a product of genetic evolution that most of us have forgotten about as we human beings have advanced over the centuries. Inside all of us are animal like instincts which are triggered during certain extreme events in our lives. Most folks don't want to think about this fact because we've all convinced ourselves that we have developed way past those basic instincts and while true, those instincts are still there in our brains and when something traumatic like a long police chase occurs, I believe these centuries old instincts kick in for some folks and they are not even aware of their actions until sometime later when their adrenaline levels return to normal.

This has to be the hardest thing for police trainers to teach new recruits during basic training. Why? Because no one really believes they are capable of such acts and most folks believe they can control their behavior all the time, even during extreme traumatic situations, like a long police chase. However, this basic instinct that is built into we human beings is very strong and it's similar to the instincts we see in animals that are very well behaved until they join up with a pack of other animals at which point their whole personality and actions will change.

The reason I believe these police actions are similar to this example is because every time I have witness this kind of abuse is when there are several officers against only one person that is trying to avoid capture. At the point of arrest, the adrenaline of the police officers and the suspect must be extremely high and I believe that adrenaline is what causes this temporary shut down of the brains right and wrong connections to the point that old basic survival instincts will kick in and a person isn't even aware of the what they are doing.

To be fair this same situation is happening in the person that is trying to escape police capture and that's why it can take many men to subdue a small person that is pumped up on this much adrenaline. This is why I believe most police departments need to place restrictions on high speed chases in their cities. They know that there is no way they can train this type of basic human response out of people and if police officers are placed into a long police chase where their adrenaline becomes too high, all their regular mental abilities of right, wrong and training will be turned off and a basic instinct of survival will kick in and control their actions.

If I'm right about this, it would only make sense that in long high speed police chases that officers not be allow to continue a pursuit for a long period of time. In a large city, there are enough officers that can continue a pursuit for a certain period of time and then be relieved by other officers. I've notice that in some of these high speed chases, it appears that some of the officers never seem to break off the pursuit, so at the point of capture there are dozens of police cars in pursuit of only on vehicle, with only one driver. This is also the time when I feel this out of control basic instinct situation is most likely to occur.

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