Bump
It is about time the country has this talk.
The writer seriously understates the importance to effective policing of having public's good will.
There is only one alternative for the law to being in good standing with the public. Its not something any country wishing to remain free would want.
/johnny
If they want to be Rangers then they can volunteer for Afghanistan.
The aggravated assault rate has tripled since the 60’s. The reason Mayberry-style PD’s are out of fashion is because violent perps are the rule rather than the exception. It used to be that most perps understood that they were the bad guys, and gave up when cornered. These days, perps think they are the good guys, and their vicious conduct reflects it. Only much-improved emergency room care has prevented the tripling in the rate of shootings, stabbings and so on from tripling the homicide rate. Rap isn’t the cause of it - it is the symptom of an underclass radicalized by Zinn, Chomsky and all of other lefties pushing - via the public education system - their vision of an unjust America that needs to be put out of its misery. These people, both the perps and their relatives and friends, are as socialized in American society as lions and leopards are in African society.
“You don’t want us arming the teachers or having local residents open carrying to keep the school grounds safe.”
We don’t?
Any time you extend government power for “good” sooner or later that same power will be used for evil. Increasing government power almost always doe mroe harm than good.
Government overreach and excessive coercion is one of the basic reasons for the breakdown of respect for laws and government in the first place. Government and laws that interfere with the personal and private lives of individuals create a disdain and contempt in people for one another and for those laws and that government. That is a big deal in our culture right now.
The Left is usually the instigator of these problems. Riots and a lot of nonsense usually occur under Leftist regimes that have no respect for individuals’ private rights and freedoms.
This ought to be fun. Just going to kick back, and see what comments the FR speed readers crank out after whizzing through this one.
Rioting has been going on periodically for my entire lifetime. The cops always deal with it the same way. They form a perimeter and then let the rioters do the watusi for 2-3 days and burn down their own neighborhoods. It has not changed over the decades.
In Ferguson the cops did the same thing they always do, they pulled back and let the looting and burning happen. Then they decided to make tough with the media and some protesters who in video I witnessed were fairly calm until they were accosted by jumped up cops looking like the military. Tear gassing and arresting the media is not policing. Inciting protesters who are standing on a sidewalk is not policing.
Of course the commissars of our budding soviet state need a militarized police. The new NKVD need all the muscle it can get.
There’s less violent crime than any time in the nation’s history. If you walk around with a hammer all day, everything begins to look like a nail. Apply that maxim to law enforcement with tactical gear and a tactical mentality, and you see where it takes you. There
Yes, there are times when extraordinary equipment and methods may be necessary. Those times are and should be rare. A garden variety civil disturbance doesn’t require armored vehicles, snipers, and police who think they’re Delta Force. And Ferguson is a garden variety civil disturbance. It’s not an all out insurrection that threatens the social order-despite what breathless pundits on all sides would have you believe.
When “protect and serve” are core values instead of just slogans written on the door of a cruiser, there’s not much need for cool-guy gear and cool-guy tactics. But that’s not nearly as much fun for the hotshots who now carry badges for the wrong reason.
This post would have been popular during the Bundy Ranch standoff. Now, not so much, I’ll wager. Principles are usually flexible depending on how much one identifies with the parties involved, and not many Freepers will have much sympathy with the Ferguson protestors. Be that as it may, militarization of law enforcement is a trend that should be reversed, for all our sakes.
History is laced with cultures that became more and more tyrannical as they decayed, in vain attempts to create with the sword that which they'd torn from the soul.
We aren’t going to be able to stop the proliferation of the military weapons to local police forces.
It’s important, however, to change those things we can, and in this case one thing to change is our perception of those weapons.
We need to begin thinking of them as resources for our side, resources being maintained and fueled for us to use when they are needed.
How about we quit breeding gibsmedats, quit inviting illegal aliens into the country ... maybe then we wouldn’t “need” uniformed thugs.
The author is full of crap.
The problem is that when police are kitted out with military gear they will use it. Not just for riots, but they will do more mundane jobs, way down scale from riots, using the same tactics. It’s already happening, and people are already dead who should not be.
The every day cop needs his side arm and maybe a semi-auto rifle or shotgun in the trunk with a vest and helmet. Beyond that the “tactical unit” should be available for call up for specific incidents where there is a known SIGNIFICANT threat.
This does not mean serving normal warrants. If the need to serve a warrant or confront a significant threat arises then is should be executed on a rare basis rather than routine.
A military uniform should be reserved exclusively for military use - it is a universally recognized symbol that the Most Powerful Force in the World has arrived to kill enemies and SAVE populations.
Bloused camo pants aren’t going to stop a bullet any quicker than police uniform pants. Departments need to bugger off with the dress-up crap and the government needs to stop acting like a damn arms dealer to agency departments. And that includes painting armoured vehicles in camo or flat grey - paint the darn thing like the police vehicle it is.
If departments insist on on their officers being dressed up like rhinestone cowboys, AND they expect to retain the support of the military, then they might want to strongly consider conducting themselves under Warrior rules and knock off fostering perceptions that make REAL warriors look bad:
It’s interesting because arguing against the “militarization of police” ultimately is saying that more power has to go to State and Federal government than local.
Its somewhat analogous to 2nd amendment issue where the anti-right-to-bear side says big brother will take care of you, so you don’t need guns.
Here it is big big brother will come in and take care of your city if there are any problems, so you don’t need equipment to deal with riots or other threats to your city.