Will We Survive the Wall Street Recovery?
And other issues of group think, hysteria and fear By James Preston Allen, Publisher
February 7 - 20, 2014
Serving the Seven Cities of the Harbor Area
Like most people, I often switch on that electronic fireplace we call the TV when I come home at night and bear witness to heinous crimes of violence and corruption (both real or invented) play across the screen. I suppose it is the distraction from the daily grind or perhaps the titillation of local news and cop shows when they veer off into increasingly violent and sexual avenues. Why do I continue watching? It must be the comfort I derive from being a voyeur of lives much worse or more complicated than my own. Voyeurism of this sort must have some kind of psychological effect, don’t you think? I bring this up because lately I’ve been thinking about the way we make decisions in groups. Recently, I’ve been impressed with the consideration of different perspectives on when to vote or not at our neighborhood council meetings. There is a whole lot of writing out there on the use of “crowdsourcing,” poll taking and what recently has been termed “the wisdom of the crowd” in decision-making. In his 2005 book, The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, James Surowiecki talks about the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that are often better than could have been made by any single member of the group. This, I believe can only be true if the group has been given true and reliable information upon which to decide and be able to make a decision without being under duress. Examples of bad group decision making abounds and surrounds us. The wisdom of the crowd is only as good as the information to which they have access. The sub-prime mortgage crisis was partly due to corrupt bond rating agencies flat out lying to the Wall Street banks about the quality of the mortgages to which the bonds were attached. The Patriot Act parts I and II were both passed by a Congress that barely read the document based on fears of terrorism—a Congress whose paranoia exaggerated real threats. The wisdom of the crowd can be traded quite easily for the safety of the herd mentality. Take for instance the Los Angeles Police Department’s report on the Feb. 7, 2013 shooting of two Los Angeles Times newspaper delivery women in Torrance, in the wake of the Christopher Dorner shootings. Ten LAPD officers were protecting the home of one of
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Dorner’s suspected targets. At the time, it was already reported that a Riverside police officer had been fatally shot and two LAPD officers had been fired upon in Riverside. It was reported that a truck matching Dorner’s was spotted near Torrance. The newspaper delivery women were driving a similar type of truck, but of a distinctly different color, down the street slowly throwing papers where the officers were positioned. To two officers on heightened alert, the sound of a newspaper landing on a driveway and the flicker of light inside the cab was mistaken for a gunshot. When these two officers opened fire, another seven officers also fired, totaling more than 100 rounds. One of the women was wounded twice and the other suffered minor injuries from the shattered glass. Subsequently, the women settled a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for $4.2 million and were given a brand new pickup truck. This is what’s known by police and military agencies alike as “contagion firing,” where the more officers there are involved in a shooting, the number of shots fired increases exponentially. It also is the perfect example of failure of the wisdom of the crowd. Group decisions fail when the people involved are under stress, threat of life or are operating out of fear. In the case cited here only one officer didn’t fire his weapon and that’s the one I’d like to speak to. What was it that didn’t make him or her lose his cool under duress? Group decision making is implicated in discussions about the national psychology of market economics, particularly with the rapid rise and crashes of the stock market caused by contagion action driven by the herd mentality. This is seen after a year of unprecedented profits in 2013—when the Dow Jones rose above 16,000 points. It fell more than 500 points in a single week, a sharp 320 points in a single day to 15,499. The sell-off struck fear into the hearts of stock brokers, economists and bankers. It appears that this “bear” trend will continue as the psychology of the market does not have confidence in the future of jobs, growth or the Federal Reserve’s new policies. What I’m questioning here is the value of the wisdom of the 1 percent who invest in, and profit from, the stock market and whether their influence on our national economy is overrated, and in some sense, useless to those of us who make our living on Main Street. I haven’t taken a poll or even crowdsourced this idea, but I’d bet that if only 10 percent of the money that was either spent or lost within the past 5 years Publisher/Executive Editor James Preston Allen james@randomlengthsnews.com
“A newspaper is not just for reporting the news as it is, but to make people mad enough to do something about it.” —Mark Twain Vol. XXXV : No. 3
Published every two weeks for the Harbor Area communities of San Pedro, RPV, Lomita, Harbor City, Wilmington, Carson and Long Beach. Distributed at over 350 locations throughout the seven cities of the Harbor Area.
Assoc. Publisher/Production Coordinator Suzanne Matsumiya info@graphictouchdesigns.com Managing Editor Terelle Jerricks editor@randomlengthsnews.com Assistant Editor Zamná Ávila zamna@randomlengthsnews.com
was invested in small Main Street businesses, the entire economic future of our nation would change for the better and that the Wall Street recovery, such as it is, would actually trickle down to the working class. It might be best at this point to remember the famous words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he delivered his first inaugural address: This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will
endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. Something our national leaders need to remember.
Sheriff Reform? Look to the LAPD
By Erwin Chemerinsky and Miriam Aroni Krinsky The recent resignation of Sheriff Lee done and there would be proposals for reform. Baca presents a much-needed opportunity for Some would be adopted; most would be ignored. meaningful, lasting and long-overdue reform of The problem would be deemed solved until the the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. next incident precipitated the same pattern of The federal indictments in December of 18 responses. former and current sheriff’s deputies are the latest This cycle ended with the Rampart scandal and most dramatic indication of a department in 2000, which exposed officers in an anti-gang in desperate need of change. In charting the unit who planted evidence on innocent people road for reform—with the multifaceted aims of and lied in court to gain convictions. In the wake transforming a troubling culture, institutionalizing of these revelations, the Justice Department internal structural changes and rebuilding public informed city officials that it was contemplating confidence—much can be learned from the suing Los Angeles for a pattern and practice of experiences that propelled reform of the Los civil rights violations. The city entered into a Angeles Police Department. consent decree that mandated many changes For decades, the LAPD was plagued by a overseen by a monitor and a federal judge. culture that tolerated, and at times encouraged, Mayor James Hahn appointed a police chief from civil rights violations. Every time there was a outside the department, William J. Bratton. Real major incident of misconduct, department and reforms occurred and the LAPD today is a vastly city leaders said the misconduct was the result different department. continued on following page of just a “few bad apples.” A study would be
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