Friday, July 15, 2011
Gone Awry
Much of the book thus far speaking to split decision making, thin slicing, and intuition has shown some of the positive aspects to these procedures, but what if the thin slicing doesn’t lead to a positive outcome. Chapter 7 brings in the story of a incident in South Bronx where the intuition, thin-slicing, and split decision making efforts by four New York City Police officers would end up costing a young man his life. Amadou Diallo was standing on a porch when the officers drove by and thought he looked “suspicious”. After further “suspensions” arouse from the officers and a confrontation of the young man ensued, where in the process of pulling his wallet from his pocket, he was shot by the officers who believed ( in their own thin-slicing, intuition, blink) that he was drawing a weapon. It’s a tragic example of thin-slicing gone awry.
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Unfortunately, these officers' thin slicing was sprinkled with a bit of racism. I'm not sure if the book mentioned it but in this case the officers fired at Diallo 41 times!!! I would like to know what these officers were sensing or deducing from this man, this unarmed man, that they had to unload 41 times on him.
ReplyDeleteI remember this case very clearly and I think it also speaks to the experience of the officers. If I recall, at least three of them were under the age of 30. Being wet behind the ears they were probably a little trigger happy being in the Bronx. Nevertheless they killed a man and destroyed a family. Hopefully as they have gained more experience in the past few years they have killed fewer innocent Black men.
To couple what Ashlee stated, many of my friends and family that became police, sheriffs, and firemen confessed their 'roller-coaster' of emotions from fear to anxiety on a daily basis during the early years on the force or department. One of them accidentally instigated a fire-fight at a gas station where he was shot. He was on edge with his girlfriend at the time coupled with a high level of caffeine and sugar intake. His emotional state was highly anxious and aggravated; his partner resembled similar feelings. Emotional timing with resonance can proliferate a 'trigger-happy' and/or negative situation, especially in a team atmosphere such as with police and firemen/firewomen where their catecholamines (adrenalin, noradrenalin) are already in high secretion in anticipation. Though their training is designed to alleviate or elminate rash judgments and impetuous actions, they are still human and fallible--its not an excuse, but an unfortuante reality.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a lot to be said for intuition. And obviously I can't imagine the anxiety and high stakes law enforcement have to deal with on a regular basis. But, based on the information Ashlee shared, there has to a be a lot more to this example of extremely poor decision making. You have to hope, and I would assume, split decision makeing usually turns out better than this.
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