Posted on 12/11/2013 12:40:46 PM PST by Kaslin
The University of the Incarnate Word is a highly-rated Catholic college in San Antonio, Texas. It is hardly a hot bed of campus violence. When senior Robert Cameron Redus was pulled-over last Friday by campus police for “erratically speeding,” it is unlikely he had any clue of how tragically the stop would end. The campus police department contends Redus, an honors student set to graduate in May, grabbed the officer’s steel baton during a struggle. Not in dispute, however, is that Redus was shot five times by the officer, at close range, leaving him dead and the University scrambling to explain why lethal force was needed to subdue a single college student.
Police-involved shootings are on the rise from New York City to Anaheim, California and crime data suggests incidents involving questionable use of police force -- once a problem primarily limited to large, inner-city areas -- are occurring with greater frequency in smaller towns across the country. For civil liberties watchdogs, this disturbing trend should come as no surprise; much like their federal counterparts, local police and prosecutors are demanding greater power to “pursue criminals,” even if such power may overstep constitutional limitation; and regardless of whether such an approach makes practical sense in low-crime communities or in many non-violent situations in which police officers are involved.
A major factor accounting for this trend is the massive infusion of federal “anti-terrorism” money being funneled from the Department of Homeland Security to local police departments. These billions are turning many neighborhood cops into paramilitary personnel -- equipped with vehicles and weapons intended for use in the world’s most violent warzones. The over- militarization of small-town America is turning Mayberry into the Middle East; with Andy Griffith monitoring a license plate camera while Don Knotts patrols the streets carrying an MP5. Officers now have military-style armored vehicles parked in their lots along side their Crown Victoria patrol cars. This has created such unusual scenarios as Ohio State University’s 40,000-pound, armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, and sophisticated license plate readers in a town of 333 people.
More than simply increasing the likelihood of abuse or disaster, such militarization tends to change the psyche of the American police officer -- the more he is equipped like a soldier, the more he begins to act like one. This, coupled with today’s crime-speak that treats all crimes as if they were acts of terrorism, puts police officers mentally on the offensive; changing their perspective from “serve and protect,” to “find and prosecute.”
Perhaps this is why earlier this year, Virginia Alcohol Control Board agents pulled their guns on a frightened, 20-year-old college student. After mistaking her purchase of bottled water for alcohol, plainclothes officers surrounded her vehicle, and one agent jumped on her hood. Understandably frightened after being ambushed in a dark parking lot, the student tried to drive away as agents drew their guns and tried breaking her windows. Fortunately, the student was not shot. She was, however, forced to spend the night in jail and charged with three felony offenses. The District Attorney decided not to prosecute the case, but stood by officers’ decision to file charges against the student.
In a country where buying a bottle of water can escalate quickly into a potential five-year prison term, the once-common refrain of “you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide,” has become esoteric. Reports emerge daily about new details of the Obama Administration’s domestic spying programs. Recent court documents reveal the FBI’s ability to activate computer cameras without alerting users. Government agencies at all levels share our personal data with each other -- even data illegally stolen from commercial sites.
The entire attitude of the criminal justice system is shifting towards treating all citizens -- regardless of guilt -- as suspects. There is no more burden of proof. There is no more assumption of innocence. Your only “right” is to obey; just try to board an airline with a two-inch toy gun in a child’s back pack.
The best hope we have to undoing this statutory and regulatory nightmare created in recent years is to fight back through the ballot box and in court. Fortunately, organizations from across the ideological spectrum -- from the Institute for Justice to the American Civil Liberties Union, and many others – are actively helping to protect citizens from government abuse in all its forms.
All this is not to say there are not very real and very serious threats in communities across the country. Adam Lanza reminded us of that a year ago in Newtown, CT. These threats and incidents must be dealt with using a sound combination of good policing and new technology. But militarizing police forces in communities large and small, and treating all citizens as enemies, is not reasonable, necessary or American.
So you’re with/were with, a small law enforcement department?
Right?
No problem BTW.
Thank you.
Take care...
Then, they return and join or rejoin police forces, bringing their lessons learned to the new “enemy”.
They need re-training. If they want to to execute search and destroy missions, go to Afghanistan, not America.
Yes Sir, you too.
Did ya note during Bush's decades long compassionate wars, costing trillions, we watched endless video of what??
Them kicking down down doors in the dusty alleys of Baghdad raiding one after another..Makes ya wonder...Was one big training mission?
What was the book and documentary about a unit in Iraq in which the kill crazy psychos were a bunch of Guardsmen from the LAPD? The real soldiers hated them.
A couple of years ago, Radley Balko had a touching blog in which he recounted a combat vet objecting to the phrase "militarization" of police. He said that what was going on with these SWAT teams would never be tolerated in the real military.
I would strongly advise those given authority/power to consider what they do today is no longer covert, hidden or obscure, and are being watched and evaluated by those who outnumber them by a series of multiple magnitudes.
He said that what was going on with these SWAT teams would never be tolerated in the real military.
Bush was an A-Hole, along with his Daddy. Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama have been an unreleaved succession of increasingly more incompetent Presidents. And the one we have now is an anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-western, black racisgt bastard - the worst of the bunch.
If He is not impeached after the mid-terms, America really is finished.
No, that sounds like militarized police inventing a term that did not exist even a few years ago. What the heck is "patrol" rifle, anyway?
Before the police started becoming militarized, a patrol officer used to carry a .38 revolver on his person (or a .357 magnum if his department issued/allowed them and/or he wanted to purchase one himself). There was also a pump action shotgun or two in each patrol car. Rifles were not standard issue at all, never mind a "patrol rifle".
Why does a police officer need any more fire-power than that if his intent is to treat citizens as law-abiding unless he has probable cause to think otherwise?
PS - Two days ago. The Va. State police were heading somewhere in their armored personnel carrier/house demolisher.
;-)
I'd say *most* police officers consider themselves military, even though they're not supposed to be.
We were warned about a standing army.
They do the same.
If you are not close to a cop, you are a suspect. All of my relatives that are cops have said so.
My house was broken into a couple years ago. Had about 6 cars there in 10 mins after my son called. I arrived about 15 minutes just as they were going in.
I warned them there were guns in the house. Once they cleared it they asked me to check the guns. One lady cop asked me how many guns I had. I said I didn’t know and the other cops just smiled and nodded.
The one cop neighbor who will talk to me told me his first thought was it was a felony arrest when he saw all the cars.
No. I'm saying that there are too many people in jail period.
There are too many laws and certainly too many laws that can result in jailing the offenders.
It wasn't too many years ago that people weren't jailed unless they created some sort of mayhem.
The problem is that the proliferation of laws against this and that have resulted in people creating mayhem.
By today's standards, Doc Holiday would have been permanently jailed long before the OK Corral.
The human condition is imperfect. Every offense doesn't have to result in incarceration.
Hell, I have a 75-year-old neighbor who is in jail today because he did not cut the weeds in the alley behind his house on a timetable and manner that suited the weed and litter police last April.
Not when police officers are being trained to go tactical on everyone they meet. That when a patrolman is speaking to me, he is making and remaking the "shoot-don't shoot" decision over and over again in his head as he evaluates me as a target.
We're all self-propelled sandbags to them anymore.
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