Austin's KUT-News today interviewed Radley Balko about his new book, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The militarization of America's police forces. Listen to it here.
MORE: This afternoon I went to listen to Balko's speech at the Peaceful Streets Project's second annual summit. Good stuff. In the Q&A I asked what solutions Balko would offer to the problem of police overmilitarization. He referred me to a chapter in his book - and upon returning home I see he could have referred to this recent column - but answered in a nutshell, "End the drug war." He lamented as the applause died down, "that's not going to happen." But as my mama always said, "Can't never could."
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6 comments:
The answer to police militarization will be civilian militarization. I predict that sometime within the next decade police officers will be forced to drive armored vehicles because of sniper fire from rooftops and overpasses, that they will be ambushed on blocked-off streets with Molotov cocktails, and that incidents like occurred in Lakewood, Wa. in 2009 when four police officers were executed while gaming on their laptops. I further predict that the use of guerrilla tactics against cops in our urban areas will increase to such magnitude that cops will avoid these areas at all costs.
The fact is that Americans have long known freedom, and it's only a matter of time before the majority realizes what's been going on and decide to take action. Citizens are more in fear for their freedoms now than at any point in history, and they are better armed too. With the proliferation of dozens of websites that seek to educate and inform the masses such as CopBlock, NPMRP, and the Facebook page that documents the child sex crimes committed by police officers, all that's needed to light the timber is one incident captured on videotape, and a charismatic leader for the resistance, then it will be "burn, baby, burn"...
That's a really ridiculous prediction. Murder rates are on a 20-year decline and police officers' jobs are (much) safer than garbage collectors. The incident in Washington involved a mentally ill man who suffered hallucinations, it wasn't a political statement. There is no "charismatic leader" in the wings who could inspire such a rebellion, and no responsible leader would (unless s/he wanted to get their followers massacred a la David Koresh). There is IMO zero chance of your predictions coming true.
this might kill you grits! But I agree with you. Wholesale attacks on law enforcement will not happen. For one thing like most types of professions it's only a fraction of law enforcement that is dirty committing crimes or those violating citizens rights and deserving of removal. Better if it's going to happen that those ONLY be dealt with hopefully in a peaceful manner if possible.
Maybe they'll all kill themselves with nail guns like this police lieutenant did after he was caught molesting a child: http://www.myfoxwausau.com/story/23117816/2013/08/12/update-disturbing-details-in-ex-officers-death
rodsmith -
Of course it's only a fraction - anything less than 100% becomes a fraction - but the question is how large is that fraction. And in law enforcement that fraction should (and I believe is) smaller than the general population but the question is, how small. What is the percentage of officers that have committed a crime since taking their oath. We already know that approximately 85% of the general population has committed at least one crime that they could have been incarcerated for (remember cops are one large group of people vetted for just such a violation). If you, or anyone else, has an evidence-based answer, I'd be interested.
Anonymous 06:05
You can find the answer to that and many others regarding crimes by cops VS crimes by the general population here: http://www.policemisconduct.net/2010-npmsrp-police-misconduct-statistical-report/
This is the ONLY place you can find thse answers because the FBI doesn't track crimes by law enforcement in their Uniform Crime Statistics.
And you can see the documented cases of child sex crimes committed by law enforcement here:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-to-survivors-of-child-sexual-assault-by-law-enforcement-officers/180584842010594?sk=wall
BTW,rodsmith doesn't have a clue as to what he speaks about. That fraction is as close to 100% as you can possibly get. Cops are in the perfect position to commit crimes and get away with them. Remember that when looking at the statistics.
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