Policing overkill has entered the DNA of America's social policy.
If all you’ve got is a hammer, then everything starts to look like a nail. And if police and prosecutors are your only tool, sooner or later everything and everyone will be treated as criminal. This is increasingly the American way of life, a path that involves “solving” social problems (and even some non-problems) by throwing cops at them, with generally disastrous results. Wall-to-wall criminal law encroaches ever more on everyday life as police power is applied in ways that would have been unthinkable just a generation ago.
By now, the militarization of the police has advanced to the point where "the War on Crime” and “the War on Drugs” are no longer metaphors but bland understatements. There is the proliferation of heavily armed SWAT teams, even in small towns; the use of shock-and-awe tactics to bust small-time bookies; the no-knock raids to recover trace amounts of drugs that often result in the killing of family dogs, if not family members; and in communities where drug treatment programs once were key, the waging of a drug version of counterinsurgency war. (All of this is ably reported on journalist Radley Balko’s blog and in his book, The Rise of the Warrior Cop.) But American over-policing involves far more than the widely reported up-armoring of your local precinct. It’s also the way police power has entered the DNA of social policy, turning just about every sphere of American life into a police matter.
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6 comments:
Police USED to be trained in conflict resolution. Using the minimum amount of force. How to remain calm when all hell is breaking loose.
Now, it's all out, over-the-top violence. The military rule of overwhelming force, regardless of the individual or circumstances.
That's how traffic stops end up with dead citizens. Warrants for unpaid tickets get served by SWAT teams, kicking in doors and killing the family dog --- over a $30 ticket. And the police don't have anyone or anything to check that behavior.
State's Attorney's and judges go right along with the violence by agreeing with obviously BS incident/arrest reports. People are quick to blame parents for their kid's misdeeds. Well, we should be blaming prosecutors and judges for cop violence. Quit letting cops say (in SWORN affidavits) that a drunk and UNARMED man made FOUR armed cops "feel afraid" and it was perfectly legal to beat him close to death. Start calling BS on that and hold them to the higher standards they claim to adhere to so fervently.
Police use less force now then they ever have at any point in history. that why we are in the mess we are in. Police can't do anything to criminals and they know it.
lmao at 5:05 totally clueless! was a time when cops used discretion, doesn't happen any more!
Starts at the top.. It's trickle-down Obamanomics.
Like this is something new? This has been am issue for 10+ years. We arw not far away from a citizen armed rebellion.
Cops use more discretion now then they ever have. Warnings are at an all time high,
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