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To: DoughtyOne

“I’d love to see a fourteen day walkout by police nation-wide. Turn every prisoner loose that is in their holding cells. See what takes place.”

Not much would change, honestly. Most criminals aren’t caught as it is and police today are not much more than another street gang. If you’ve ever had an “off-camera” encounter with cops where they assume you are a “nobody”, you know what I’m talking about.

And did you ever try calling for help during a violent crime? Good luck, you’re better off begging and praying. 911 is a joke and a gun at your side is 1000000% more effective than a cop.

I’d vote to eliminate the power-hungry scum and let citizens be armed to defend themselves. With the money we save from cops, imagine how much we can invest into citizen training and equipment!


46 posted on 05/13/2015 4:35:36 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: varyouga
And did you ever try calling for help during a violent crime? Good luck, you’re better off begging and praying. 911 is a joke and a gun at your side is 1000000% more effective than a cop.

Yeah. I carry a gun because it's too much work to carry a cop.

What we're actually seeing is the result of several policies and circumstances that are all coming together at once.

FIrst, The vast majority of cops have become not much more than tax collectors for the police/welfare state. For most of us, the only interactions we have with police is when they pull us over for some alleged driving violation .  In those situations, because they often use them as the pretext for more revenue generation against a soft, safe target, our perception of police has become more and more averse to having any interaction at all with them. The mantra of "don't talk to police" is not just a good idea, it is excellent advise.

Second, you have the ever-increasing militarization of the police. The proliferation of "SWAT" teams with military hardware helps to reinforce the "us vs. them" perceptions amongst both the police and the citizens.  Of course, once you have a swat team with all their fun toys to play with, you have to actually use them or people will question the legitimacy of the need.   What the police tend to forget is that if you dress up and equip yourself like an occupying army, people will begin to percieve you as an occupying army, and rightfully so. On a personal note, anyone who invades my home wearing a mask is a target, I don't care what logo they have on their jackets.

Third, and perhaps ultimately, the proliferation of video cameras. It hasn't quite sunk into the powers that be yet, that these things are a double-edged sword. Yes, they are very useful for the police state to keep their supposed subject in line. On the other hand, it is providing those same subjects with the ability to expose the actions of the state to a world-wide audience almost immediately. 

Fourth, you have what appears to be an absolute institutional failure of police organizations to police themselves. We often hear about the 1% that makes the rest look bad, but then we see that even in the most obviously egregious circumstances, that the "thin blue line" closes ranks to protect their own despite the massive damage this kind of stuff does to the perceptions of the public.

For years, your average American was fed a steady diet of the propaganda about 'officer friendly'. He's just here to help, and spends the majority of his days rescuing kittens from trees.  For some areas, that had the benefit of being largely true, but it has never been true universally, nor for all people.  A black man passing through some parts of the country could find himself running afoul of 'officer friendly' just for being who he was, and where he happened to be at the moment.

In times past, each of these interactions were isolated incidents that rarely were brought to the attention of the population at large, who figured, based on their own experiences with these same officers, that the 'miscreant' had done something to bring down the ire of the police upon him. It always came down to essentially the officer's word against a citizen's. Nowdays, we have cameras that are able to record the incident, and show where the fault really lies.  This tends to undercut that whole 'officer friendly' meme.

Couple that, with the fact that these kinds of incidents are quckly available to a worldwide audience, and you'll find that the erosion to the meme has reached a point that it is going to be really difficult to sell it to the populace at large again,

Then, you also have current police training methods which (IMO) overly emphasise "officer safety" to the point that in any interaction with the public, the officer in question will often be perceived as being overly jumpy and confrontational for a situation that simply does not warrant it.  If you want to experience this really up close and personal yourself, the next time you're pulled over by a cop as politely as you can, inform him that you will be taking full advantage of the 4th and 5th amendments rights guaranteed you under the Constitution, and you'll see how well that plays.

You take all of the above, and throw in the fact that there are folks out there whose entire existance is based on their ability to stir people up and rabble-rouse and you have an interesting mixture that ultimately will not end well.

Then, as the icing on the cake, you have the globalists who hate the idea of local control of anything, who are pushing the idea of nationalizing police forces. These people are truely dangerous. Even more so than professional racists like Sharpton and company.

When it's all rolled together, the ultimate consequences to come from all this has yet to be seen, but I suspect strongly it won't be pretty.

63 posted on 05/13/2015 9:20:24 AM PDT by zeugma (Are there more nearby spiders than the sun is big?)
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To: varyouga

Well your recommendation would result in power grabs in local communities across this nation. A strong man would emerge and essentially rule the community. Translation, the criminal element would replace the police.

Have you experienced a number of ride-alongs with police officers? Have you had a family member that was a police officer? Have you ever had a friend that was one? Have you had more than a thirty second conversation with one other than when you were being sited by one?


71 posted on 05/13/2015 10:39:56 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (Conservatism: Now home to liars too. And we'll support them. Yea... GOPe)
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