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Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Stop Granting Special Privileges To The Police

The horrific Boston bombings already have led to irrational calls for more security cameras and more police officers, with some Democrats absurdly using this tragedy as a reason to stop the slight sequester-mandated cuts in federal spending growth.

Never mind that police spending primarily is a local matter. The bigger questions that Americans have rarely asked, especially following the 9/11 attacks: Do we really want the government to hire new armies of police officers? Do we really want to pay the price for this?

Knowing my views on the growing public-pension crisis, most readers probably think the “price” I’m worried about the nation’s multi-trillion-dollar unfunded pension liabilities driven largely by the “3 percent at 50” pension deals that cost taxpayers millions of dollars for each “first responder” who retires at 50 after 30 years of service.

That’s a huge problem – the result in part of Americans’ irrational embrace of the “more police” logic after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. But that’s not the main source of my concern. My real concern involves our safety and civil liberties given that police officers, and other groups of public employees, have become a protected class that does not have to follow the same rules as the average citizen.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh yes give up your right to privacy, your guns, and your free speech too.

lmclain said...

Get that goof who thinks this stuff is "tin-foil hat" radical theory. I suppose a tin-foil-hat (man! thats sounds so cool and superior!) is preferrable to a blindfold, huh? The police ARE above the law. So are politicians. The truth of that is irrefutable and available to anyone who removes the blindfold they have tied around their head. The only people who think otherwise are.....wait for it....the police and politicians. Both entities want to take (unless, of course, we willingly surrender them, our rights to criticize, assemble, resist, and otherwise refute the total control they so desperately want....

Anonymous said...

Police above the law, now that's funny. Average Joe citizens don't understand the law, basic police procedures, search and seizure etc. The truth is police overly criticized, treated like crap, sued for no reason by people who don't know the first thing about law enforcement.

Get with the times. This isn't the same America it once was. America is home of criminal and few police are truly the thin blue line between these dirtbags and good folks.

You haven't lost a SINGLE right to the police.

Anonymous said...

I know the Constitution you LEO dirtbag. You are the problem. Take your blue line and shove it where the sun don't shine on O'Malley.

Anonymous said...

549, obviously you have seen the videos from Boston searches, but have never seen a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of rights. You need a different country to live in. And, yes, I'll back up 9:58's comment, "LEO dirtbag."