The Reality of the Police State

The conspiracy that the US law enforcement would become much like Soviet Russia, Red China, and Cuba, has been around for quite awhile, and even speaking about it now can cause some to lower their expectations about you. With the rise of the Internet, video technology, and libertarian social pressure, police activity, or more clearly brutality, has become a clear, undeniable reality right here in the US.

We’ve all probably seen the images of one man being held up by 10 police officers, or the SWAT team wearing full body armor with assault rifles. That may seem like enough to give you a scare and at least push you in the direction to consider this a problem, but it gets worse.

Lately there has been lots of discussion about silly things like “white privilege” and whether or not blacks are profiled, when the discussion really needs to be pointed to law enforcement procedures and accountability. Officers who execute these poorly thought out maneuvers are often not punished enough, and merely excused by appealing to standard procedure. Well, if standard procedure is that police can bust down my door without warning, not having committed a crime or thought to be violent, then the procedures need to change. And I’ll tell you why police officers act in this way, and why the procedures are so; it’s our foreign policy.

I believe that our foreign policy is the reason why law enforcement procedures are the way they are. We have a foreign policy that promotes evasive action and collateral damage, all in the name of the greater good (whatever the flavor may be). We have ex-military officers, along with officers who have a head crammed full of doctrine about evasive actions, bringing everyone home, etc. all at the cost of innocent civilians being treated unnecessarily, and even killed. Many innocent individuals have been killed because of these procedures, leaving their families mourning, in need, and with bitterness towards their own supposed Protectors.

Radley Balko, author of “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces”, received many negative comments and letters from other officers about his book, condemning current police procedures. However, he also received startling praises and agreements from other fellow officers.

“And in a letter to the editor in response to a recent article I wrote on this issue for the Wall Street Journal, Jon W. McBride writes:

Police concerns about being outgunned may be a self-fulfilling prophecy and increasingly leads to local and state bureaucrats engaging in what lifetime appointed government workers do best: mission creep.

If not expressly prohibited, police managers will continually push the arms race. Their professional literature is predominately based on the acquiring and use of newer weapons and more aggressive techniques to physically overwhelm the public. In many cases, however, this is the opposite of smart policing.

Coupled with the paramilitary design of the police bureaucracy itself, the police give in to what is already a serious problem in the ranks: the belief that the increasing use of power against a citizen is always justified no matter the violation. The police don’t understand that in many instances they are the cause of the escalation and bear more responsibility during an adverse outcome.

The suspects I encountered as a former police officer and federal agent in nearly all cases granted permission for me to search their property when asked, often despite unconcealed contraband. Now, instead of making a simple request of a violator, many in law enforcement seem to take a more difficult and confrontational path, fearing personal risk. In many circumstances they inflame the citizens they are engaging, thereby needlessly putting themselves in real and increased jeopardy.”

And,

“Here’s another, from a former police officer who asked me not to publish his name.

I just finished your Wall Street Journal article and him surprised I’ve never read any of your writings prior to now; probably because I don’t read the Huffington Post but gravitate more toward National Review; I do read Reason on ongoing basis though.

I was a cop in Southern California from 1976 to 1990 . . . went from a patrol officer to Capt. and then quit to practice law.

I have watched the “whatever it takes to go home” mindset involved in modern-day policing and am frankly pretty appalled by it. The number of police officers killed in the line of duty 70s was just as high, if not higher, on a per capita basis . . . but somehow now there is this paranoid mindset. Obviously policing can be dangerous; I have had one friend shot, and three others involved in shootings, but number one on the hit parade when I was on the street and supervising street cops was not to shoot unless absolutely necessary, and to be sure that you didn’t arrest somebody unless you had a good legal basis, and were pretty sure it was the right person. Don’t even get me started on no knock warrants and drug enforcement.

I worked with a lot of guys who were combat veterans from the Vietnam era, and they certainly didn’t have anything to prove to anybody. They were probably less likely to get involved in violent confrontations than the types of cops I see nowadays, most of whom do not have a military background, and some who are acting out, at least to some degree, video game fantasies about being a bad ass. I always thought that “Adam 12” would have been the best training video for cops to watch, rather than some of the officer survival stuff.

Don’t want to sound like an old guy opining about the good old days, but I remember when most cops had revolvers and didn’t discharge hundreds of bullets in a shooting situation, or light up a pickup truck with two Hispanic ladies delivering newspapers in a mindless panic. Obviously technology in firearms is much better now, but the unfortunate downside is the 16 or 18 9 mm rounds that can be cranked out of a Glock or a Beretta in just a few seconds, and the disappearance of fire discipline that was ground into us in the police Academy.

American policing really needs to return to a more traditional role of cops keeping the peace; getting out of police cars, talking to people, and not being prone to overreaction with the use of firearms, tasers, or pepper spray, this new survey shows why policemen love to drive their cars, and therefore, not get off of them as often as they shoyuld. Also (said the old crank) those damn polo shirts and blue jean alternate “uniforms” have got to go too. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in more than my share tussles and certainly appreciate the dangers of police work, but as Joseph Wambaugh famously said, the real danger is psychological, not physical.”

I think this issue ultimately comes down to America’s view of life. With abortion being the culturally accepted option to preserve a luxurious lifestyle, homosexuality being protected and approved, and our culture of war mongering in the name of freedom, who can honestly be surprised that our law enforcement officers, the people that our culture has raised, would ever reflect the culture? I believe strongly that our law enforcement procedures have not been hijacked by the NWO or democrats, rather I believe it to be a reflection of our society and the culture they grew up in.

Soviet Russia did not execute millions declaring, “Look how evil we are!”. No. They executed civilians in the name of the greater good. They were deceptive and said things like, “These were traitors who conspired against our nation. They wanted to harm you.”. Sound familiar? Are the pieces coming together yet? It’s not conspiracy folks, it’s history. As a culture declines away from God, institutions will mask their evil to be good. It’s never an immediate transition from moral to immoral, it’s always soft, deceptive, and the terminology and definitions are crafted to be the vehicle of this change. It’s not the product of conspiratorial theories about global government and Illuminati, but rather depraved sinners all working in agreement with one another by jumping on the bandwagon of what’s popular.

 

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