{"id":140,"date":"2014-08-23T23:13:14","date_gmt":"2014-08-24T04:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/conservativelefty.wordpress.com\/?p=140"},"modified":"2014-08-23T23:13:14","modified_gmt":"2014-08-24T04:13:14","slug":"thoughts-on-police-militarization-tcot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/?p=140","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Police Militarization #tcot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Militarization of the police has become a hot topic in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting.\u00a0 Something one which I’ve held off giving an opinion.\u00a0 Militarization of the police?\u00a0 Yeah, absolutely against that.\u00a0 It goes far against my generally libertarian principles.\u00a0 I don’t see where this is a new story.\u00a0 It’s been discussed in conservative and libertarian circles for years.\u00a0 The increasing no-knock SWAT raids with their trail of bad shoots, dead \"Furgeson<\/a>dogs and injured kids makes that police state danger clear.<\/p>\n

However, what I’m seeing here in Ferguson – not far from me – is very different.
\nFor starters, we’re not seeing cops with “machine guns.”\u00a0 There are police with the very same<\/em><\/strong> semi-automatic modern rifles and standard magazines that pro Second Amendment people have been defending<\/strong> for decades.\u00a0 Using body armor?\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 As does any cop with a brain, regardless of the uniform.\u00a0 Military UCP or MARPAT dress?\u00a0 Now that, yes, I can<\/em> see a problem there.\u00a0 It might be cheap.\u00a0 It may be “tacticool.”\u00a0 But it sure doesn’t help calm matters.\u00a0 Field blues or khakis would be a less threatening presence without giving up situational control.<\/p>\n

One thing that I call just plain dumb is stuff like the photo circulating of the officer on top the vehicle with his rifle.\u00a0 The press keeps reporting this as a sniper atop a MRAP.\u00a0 Sorry, but all I see is a dangerously exposed cop with his rifle on the roof of a BearCat.\u00a0 A mobile rest for a light rifle like an AR15, wielded by a lightly armored officer in an extremely exposed position doesn’t come close to being called a \u201csniper.\u201d\u00a0 I actually feel sorry for him.\u00a0 It’s a good thing the police there were just worrying about looters.\u00a0 If the situation were real<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0civilian unrest, even with minimal organization, this guy would be first casualty right before the BearCat was neutralized.<\/p>\n

And that goes to a dirty little secret people \u2013 especially the media – are not considering.\u00a0 Outside places like NYC, Chicago and New Jersey, even with gear like this the police are massively outgunned with respect to the law-abiding populace at large.\u00a0 Even with body armor, you do *not* want to get hit with a .300 Win Mag.\u00a0 Or .30-anything from a rifle, for that matter.\u00a0 And I sure as heck wouldn’t want to have to cross that 200-500 yard kill zone the public has to get in the effective range with the officers light 5.56 rounds.<\/p>\n

Yet, even though a police force may not be better armed the general public, they certainly outgun individuals.\u00a0 That is one area where \u201cmilitarization\u201d is often seen.\u00a0 A SWAT no-knock raid with overwhelming force on an unconfirmed report is a military response, not a police response.\u00a0 \u201cSWATing\u201d someone has become a deadly means of revenge.\u00a0 Unapologetic shooting of a family pet when it is the officer<\/em> moving into family property is seen as unacceptably authoritarian.\u00a0 An expectation of unquestioned and abject obedience such as Sunil Dutta<\/a> expects will<\/em> be seen as the actions of a police state. \u00a0While most Americans are unwilling to submit<\/em>, you\u2019ll find almost all of us quite cooperative<\/em> when asked respectfully<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0 Especially here in (most of) the U.S. where rugged individualism is still the norm.\u00a0 Or to put it another way, \u201cmilitarization\u201d is a matter of attitude, not equipment.\u00a0 In the military, you are conditioned to not ask \u201cWhy?\u201d when told to jump.\u00a0 In most civilian life, the person who doesn’t<\/em> ask \u201cWhy?\u201d is considered unthinking.<\/p>\n

My point in this?\u00a0 The reality is that their authority is granted to them by the public<\/span> they serve.\u00a0 The effectiveness of police as peace officers is proportional to the trust the public is willing to give them.\u00a0 Militarization is more of an attitude.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t understand the difference between cooperation and obedience, then you will have problems with the public.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t understand the difference between being in control of the situation versus being in control of the people, well actually, I\u2019d say you\u2019re foolish.\u00a0 The differences are extremely subtle but also extremely important to maintaining the peace.<\/p>\n

This is significantly different than policing in much of the rest of the world. \u00a0In much of my world travels, the police really\u00a0are<\/em> a para-military organization. \u00a0They often have a power and authority that goes far beyond anything that would be acceptable here in the U.S. \u00a0In contrast, American police are – or should be – the most direct reflection of the concept of government with the consent of the governed most citizens will encounter.<\/p>\n

Frankly, this particular subject is personal for me.\u00a0 I have three good friends who are law enforcement officers, not to mention numerous LEO acquaintances over the years.\u00a0 I\u2019m picky about who I call friend, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they are all good people committed to serving their fellow citizens.\u00a0 I want them to be safe and the reality is that militarization actually makes them less<\/em> safe.<\/p>\n

While a well-equipped police force isn’t a threat to an organized community in most of the US, excessive militarization undermines that confidence and trust by the community.\u00a0 The result is disrespect and contempt on both sides.\u00a0 Once all of that is truly gone, the only result will be chaos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Militarization of the police has become a hot topic in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting.\u00a0 Something one which I’ve held off giving an opinion.\u00a0 Militarization of the police?\u00a0 Yeah, absolutely against that.\u00a0 It goes far against my generally … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[22,49,62,92,96,97,98,100,113,115],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-current-news","category-politics","tag-tcot","tag-culture-2","tag-ferguson","tag-militarization","tag-police","tag-police-force","tag-police-state","tag-politics-2","tag-swat","tag-tea-party"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5yCHs-2g","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conservativelefty.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}