Rise of the Warrior Cop

Wall Street Journal ^ | 8/7/2013

[Still Thinking]

The police say that they knocked and identified themselves

a) So what? Isn't it their responsibility to ascertain that he actually HEARD it before escalating.

b) So what? Criminals have been proven to be incapable of properly enunciating "POLICE!! OPEN UP!!"? So how can you put the citizen at risk so the citizen's employee can do his job? Why would the burden of making a wrong guess fall on a member of the wealth-CREATING sector as opposed to the wealth-CONSUMING sector??

[Farmer Dean]

Bayonets?When you see cops with fixed bayonets then you will know it’s time....

[DuncanWaring]

The “warrior cop” gets around the icky Posse Comitatus.

[BenLurkin]

Mr. Stewart fired 31 rounds

I'm surprised he got off more than three.

[PapaNew]

Murphy, it's you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piCL8qa9azA

[Alberta's Child]

One just needs to go back and look at the changing definition of "law enforcement" in this country to understand how we got here.

At one time, "law enforcement" was literally just that -- apprehending a suspected criminal for the purpose of: (1) protecting him from armed citizens hell-bent on exacting their own brand of justice; and (2) ensuring that the suspect was afforded a trial by a jury of his peers. In most jurisdictions the law enforcement officer was outmanned and out-gunned by the armed citizenry of that jurisdiction, so he relied heavily on the respect and good will of these citizens to carry out his duties.

The whole game changed once "police officers" became commonplace in America, and the primary role of these officers was crime prevention rather than law enforcement. This seemingly subtle change created an implicit distinction under the law, between "police" and "civilians," that has no place in a free society.

[Farmer Dean]

The cops are going to bust down a door someday,and the guy behind it will have a belt fed weapon and body armour.

[null and void]

Well, the cops did shoot off 250 rounds...

[BenLurkin]

The way the assault teams bunch up prior to entry — I’m surprised that somebody hasn’t taken out an entire team with well placed booby trap.

[Albion Wilde]

This is a very good article that lays out the social and constitutional problems, with the exception of the author's swipes at Republican officials -- while completely omitting mention of Mayor Goode (D) burning down a city block in Philadelphia, Bill Clinton (D) and Janet Reno's massacre at Waco, and of course their Elian Gonzalez travesty, not even to mention all the dog and human shootings in their own homes that have occurred on Obama's watch.

I worked with a major metropolitan police department in one of the largest U.S. cities as a publicist some time ago. All the top brass were sent to Harvard's Kennedy School of Government for instruction in community policing, mentioned in the article, and it was very effective.

[TauntedTiger]

Well put.

[servantboy777]

All that over hear say...all that over a few plants...wow!

The Po Po don’t actually have to see it, just take the word of someone with perhaps an axe to grind.

[Farmer Dean]

An M1 Garand would really eat into them,bunched up like that.I don’t understand what advantage they hope to get.

[ez]

The family of Jared Francom should sue the police department for putting their loved one at risk rather than arresting him peacefully outside his job or the grocery store.

[TexasFreeper2009]

all police officers should be elected like sheriffs, that alone would fix the issue.

[dragnet2]

acting on a tip that he was growing marijuana in his basement.

Good Lord! No wonder they stormed his home in a military style commando attack...

He should be treated like any other murdering international terrorist.

[USNBandit]

I think it is easier to trace the “warrior cop” to the race riots of the 60’s. that brought the advent of SWAT to deal with heavily armed militants. Then you have things like that LA bank robbery where the police went to a gun shop because they needed rifles. Add in a few city lawyers that want to reduce liability and a duty belt starts looking like Batman’s utility belt. Next thing you know the average street cop looks like an extra from Battlestar Galactica.

[Farmer Dean]

All this grief for a marijuana grow that may or may not have existed.Charge the ex-girlfriend with murder.

[null and void]

They could have save a lot of trouble by just burning the place down.