How People Adopt The Idea Of ‘Discipline Theater’ In Parenting And Policing

Michel Martin of NPR related current police shootings to the notion of 'discipline theater,' opposing one's better decision just to impress other people after several police shootings happened lately. She made a report about how people adopt the view of 'discipline theater' in parenting and policing.

On Dec. 11, NPR's Michel Martin wrote and posted in NPR her opinions relating "discipline theater" in policing and parenting. Discipline show means doing things that other people think one should do even if that person does not believe in this stuff just to impress the people. In short, it's like doing scripted scenes in theater. Now Martin related those ideas in national security and even parenting.

Examples of manifestations of "discipline theater," as per Martin, were parents' raising voices in public places and bragging about banning of sleepovers, just to be recognized that they are the parents and they are overall in charge. Martin thought of this as she has heard of a person named Edgar Welch who entered a favorite restaurant in Washington, D.C. and started firing a gun and worst pointed it on one employee.

Welch did it because he thought that police officers, other concerned netizens, and advocates in Washington were not investigating some false accusations that there's a child sex trafficking circle in the small little restaurant managed by Hillary Clinton. No one got harmed in the shootout even Welch, but he was arrested.

Another police shooting incident that Martin pointed out, which she related to discipline theater, later on, was a report involving a white police named Stephen Mader from West Virginia who did not shoot a black man, who was forcing the police to fire him and might lose his work due to the incident. Mader said he knew and had assessed the situation that he could control it without utilizing any force as he had served as ex-Marine in Afghanistan.

However, other police officers came on the crime scene and didn't wait to listen to his take on the situation and killed the black man anyway. Now, Mader is being considered by his main boss if he was fitted or not to be a police officer as his manager believed that he put the lives of the other members in great danger, the Independent has learned.

For those issues, Martin said theater has a spot in policing, just like it does in parenting or national security. She added if a show of parental firmness or force stops the requirement to utilize any power, it is much better than using a strength and hurting someone or worst killing the person. Lastly, she suggested that to prevent killing individuals who do not have to die, people should focus on things that actually may work instead of what the gallery of hecklers think they want to see.