CT, where I live, is known for being a boring, safe state. The community I live in is 90+% white - with the rest mostly made up of comparatively well-off Asians. I have never had a single negative experience dealing with the police, and the police always seem to be extremely respectful to the constituents of all skin color as far as I know. We have big cities nearby (e.g. Bridgeport, Waterbury) with non-white majority. I know people from those towns- and haven't heard any of them complain of any police excess either.
So, I have always been a little flummoxed by why the police seems to behave so egregiously on recorded video, no less, in other parts of the country.
I was reading an NYTimes article, and one sentence stood out to me:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/us/police-unions-minneapolis-kroll.html“I believe Bob Kroll was elected out of fear,” said Janeé Harteau, the police chief at the time, adding that Mr. Kroll’s message to officers was: “We are the only ones that support you. Your community doesn’t support you. Your police chief is trying to get you fired.”
Principal-agent problem is a very well known issue in organization management theory. The conflict of interest of the agent over those of the principal(s) is something that a lot of economists spend a lot of time over. The "community" is the principal. It pays taxes and appoints the police to uphold the law and order. Anybody in the police force are "agents" - paid for by the communities.
When I read the bolded part - it all boils down to a "principal agent problem" to me. The police in this case - a.k.a. the "agent" - does not believe that the "principal" - i.e. the community - has a right/authority to demand accountability.
Could this also be a problem that the "agent" only recognizes "principals" of certain skin color and not others?
Also interesting to me is the reaction of the so-called "free market" supporter's (a.k.a. the right wing "conservative"s) reaction to the agency dilemma. "Free market" is nice as long as it is convenient - I guess!!