Can A 3,000 Year-Old Sumerian Myth About Police Brutality Provide An Answer For America’s Problem Today?

Being a participant of the Generation X upbringing, I remember a time, not long ago, when American children fantasized about becoming a police officer and enacting many of the heroic deeds that were often displayed in televised detective stories. Are we so quick to have forgotten that the infamous cop show, Miami Vice, was only a million screaming fans shy of Beatlemania?

Now decades after the pride of the baby boomers has been loss with the rise of the Meism Disease, we find a bipolar American population seeking to make their dreams a reality by submerging themselves into the fantastical hope that salvation can come through technological escapism. Sadly, we find evidence of a less violent American people during a time that police are killing more civilians. Back in November of 2014, The Week, published the following report:

“According to new data released by the FBI this week, violent crime rates in America continue their steady but dramatic decline, ongoing since 1994. There were 1.16 million overall incidents of violent crime in 2013, which is the lowest total since 1978, when the population was just 222 million (compared to today’s 317 million). Reports of negligent manslaughter were the lowest since 1968.

 But there’s one type of violence that is bucking the trend: civilian deaths at the hands of police. The FBI tallied 461 felony suspects killed by police in 2013, the highest total in two decades.” 

What’s even more horrific about this growing ailment, is how the death of the civilian compares to the fatalities of war. Increasing Police Brutality: Americans Killed by Cops Now Outnumber Americans Killed in Iraq War, an online article published by The Free Thought Project, stated:

“The increase in police brutality in this country is a frightening reality. In the last decade alone the number of people murdered by police has reached 5,000. The number of soldiers killed since the inception of the Iraq war, 4489.

What went wrong? In the 1970’s SWAT teams were estimated to be used just a few hundred times per year, now we are looking at over 40,000 military style “knock and announce” police raids a year.”

You would think that in the ‘greatness of America,’ there would be much outrage, as such statistics reveal signs that Operation Paperclip may have been the Nazi Party’s gift of a trojan horse. Where are the politicians in all of this? Well as you’ve been tucked away playing in your imagination too long, America has grown ill. Instead of looking the problem straight in the face, America questions the validity and authenticity of those, who make awareness of the problem-the problem, namely, The Black Lives Matters Movement. Not dealing with the issue at hand, the media circus and heavyweight politicians weigh in on the topic of Black Lives Matters, Blue Lives Matters, and All Lives Matters, when this is neither a solution, nor the problem at hand.

In April of 2015, The Washington Times reported that “police kill more whites than blacks, but minority deaths generate more outrage.” So if the highly debated, “one black man is killed by a cop every 28 hours,” is at the very least a near estimate, and more whites are killed by police than blacks, then just how many Americans are being killed by police daily?

Of course, America is not going to look directly at the problem. She’s too preoccupied with the boasts of being a Christian nation that believes, literally, in the “mark of the beast,” that being the superstitious religion of race. This gives politicians, like Rudy Giuliani, the freedom of exercising their opinion about where they stand on the issue of Black Lives Matter and not civil terrorism. And if we were going to consider “race” as a factor, then it is tearfully shocking that not a single politician has addressed The 2006 FBI Report on White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement in public. However, we do find Sarah Palin arguing over the “self-descriptions that put any race in front of being an American are now used to further divide our nation.” Really? Then why are such descriptions on government forms?

If America is going to survive, then it better stop worshipping the description of life more than life itself, and in such things, is the cure to race and racism. Time is the best vehicle for making what is dead come to life. Yet, there is a spiritual lesson to learn in all of this.

In the ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna’s Descent into the Netherworld, we find evidence of what appears to be police brutality and its demonic cause. The story begins with Din.Gir Inanna deciding to journey the netherworld to attend the funeral rites of Ereshkigal‘s husband, Gudgalanna. During her descent, Inanna must pass through seven gates, leaving an item with each gatekeeper.

After entering the seventh gate, Inanna’s clothes are removed and she finds herself in the presence of Queen Ereshkigal and the seven underworld judges. They fix the eyes of death upon her. She is turned into a corpse and hung on a hook, making the goddess Inanna first among crucified deities. Three days and three nights pass, upon which Ninshubur, Inanna’s watcher, follows specific instructions given by the goddess, which leads to the discovery of Inanna’s condition by the ‘Lord of Magic,’ Enki.

Enki fashions two asexual beings and gives them instructions for recovering the corpse of Inanna, which they are also to revive by sprinkling the Food of Life and Water of Life upon the body. All works according to plan, save that when Inanna leaves the netherworld, she is followed by Ereshkigal’s attendants, who insists that the goddess is not free until a replacement for her is found. According to the laws of Ereshkigal’s abode, no one could leave the netherworld once they entered this realm unless they could find a replacement for themselves. As the myth continues, we see that all who faithfully practiced the mourning rites during Inanna’s absence were spared, except her own husband Dumuzi.

Instead of Dumuzi mourning for the return of Inanna, this very same goddess finds her spouse enjoying the pleasures of life and materialism. Inanna is angered by such behavior and upon her return, orders the “demons,” who followed her out of the netherworld, to carry Dumuzi off.

The “demons” that carried Dumuzi away are called the gallu (sometimes galla), which is a term that originally referred to police officers. Conceptions of the Afterlife in Early Civilizations by Gregory Shushan, page 17, states:

“When Inana prepares to ascend back to earth, she is stopped by the Anuna who demand a substitute if she is to leave the underworld. Several armed demons (galla) surround her on all sides, and escort her back to earth to find one. Galla do not eat or drink, make love or have children, and are known for breaking families apart. According to incantation texts, they are native to the netherworld (as opposed to having human origins). ‘Galla’ was also a term for the earthly city officials responsible for the release of corpses to their families. Their equivalents were characterized as agents  of death, deputies, police, executioners, or even ‘bandits’ (Katz 2003: 126, 149-51).”

Dumuzi resisted arrest. He was able to temporarily escape this otherworldly form of law enforcement by petitioning the sun-god Utu, who was able to transform him into the shapes of different animals, giving him newborn abilities. This freedom however, did not last long, as the galla were able to apprehend him on several occasions. Each time the galla caught Dumuzi, they beat him profusely. The abuse, experienced by Dumuzi, greatly compares with what we see in the news today. The Seven Story Tower: A Mythic Journey through Space and Time by Curtiss Hoffman, states:

“The galla-demons in Story Three behave much like abusive police, in a manner all too familiar to us in the late twentieth century from Third World dictatorships (and poorly run departments in U.S. cities-e.g., the Rodney King incident). In one text, in their zeal to discover Dumuzi’s hiding place they first try to bribe Geshtin-anna, then torture her by stripping her naked and pouring pitch into her vagina, to no avail. They complain: “who since the beginning of time has ever known a sister to reveal a brother’s hiding place?” This certainly suggests that harsh interrogatory methods such as these were not unknown to Sumerian city rulers.”

Painfully, as the old saying goes, ‘there is nothing new under the sun’ and this would also apply to the subject of police brutality. However, if we analyze the myth carefully, we can see some behaviors that run parallel to those expressed in modern society.

First, we must consider that while monotheists will adamantly deny the beliefs of their ancestors, it is quite possible that no matter what you believe, the science of heaven, earth, and the netherworld will continue doing what it has to do. If humanity continues to disrespect the spirit of life, personified in the image of the goddess Inanna, nature, life’s physical ambassador, will turn against mankind. This rebellion in marriage is not limited in how it will manifest itself. Remember, human beings are a part of nature too. When humans turn on each other, it is a sign that they have loss the protection of life because they are content in their haughtiness, symbolized by Dumuzi dressed in a king’s robe, being attended by slave girls with no regard for life (Inanna). It is for this reason that he did not see any need in observing the rites of mourning.

Secondly, inculcate basic spiritual principles into your life. This doesn’t meant that you have to join a new religion, but to actually know what it is that you are doing, and how your behavior affects your being spiritually. The “streets,” that so many thugs love, is nothing more than a modern-day netherworld. If you claim to love the “streets,” regardless of how cool it looks, then you are living the life of a demonologist, and must abide by the law of the netherworld. A person can break a law in the civilian world, and may seemingly get away with it because their only obligation is to the streets. Yet, when these same people break the laws of the streets, the laws of the netherworld, Ereshkigal’s agents, the galla, will possess the human correspondent in order to finish the job. These spiritual principles can be found all throughout the ancient world.

The god of the Israelites seldomly punished his people for their wrongdoing himself, but would send other nations to do his bidding. Sound familiar? The death of every human being is unfortunate and should not be used to win an argument. Conflicts with law enforcement can be greatly reduced when we put life first, lest we forget about the law of karma. Now who’s going to enforce the law of karma when we break it? Life my friend!