nucklepunche wrote:Most police are just trying to uphold the law. This is taking the examples of bad apples and making them representative of the whole. Yes when you grant authority some people will abuse it, but I am sick of people blaming law enforcement officers for what is really the fault of politicians.
There's plenty of blame to go around.
I agree with you, politicians have given the police far too much power by making far too many things "illegal". The USSC, except for a couple of exceptions, routinely expands police power.
But the cops themselves share some of the blame, as we are seeing more and more on camera.
Please note that the actual title of the job is law enforcement. The role of an officer is not to decide which laws are right or wrong or to decide what amount of equipment is justified to carry, this is what our legislators decide.
Actually the police do have some discretion, and that's as it should be, I don't think we want them to be mindless soldiers, do we? Speaking of soldiers, that's part of the problem: many police these days are ex-military who've been trained that anyone not wearing a uniform is The Enemy. That's not traditionally the mindset of an American cop.
People say that cops randomly gun down innocent people. Okay so we live in a society where people routinely pack heat so they have to be worried.
There are a dozen professions which are statistically more dangerous than "cop". And people have been routinely packing heat for two hundred years.
If you don't like it lobby for stricter anti-gun proliferation laws like one gun a month laws.
Wait, so if we think the police and laws are too stringent, we should lobby for more laws?
I'm sure there is some racist scumbag out there who is using a law enforcement career as cover for his desire to oppress minorities, but probably upwards of 99 out of 100 uses of force were when the police officer legitimately feared for his life.
I seriously doubt that ratio. They seem to be much faster to pull the trigger now than they ever have been, and that's partially because there are rarely any consequences beyond a few days' paid leave.
People say cops have too many military style weapons. Well who sets the budget? Cops are not immune to politics, it is politicians who set the budgets and approve these things. Vote them out.
The problem with that is there is nobody to vote in who thinks any differently.
The point is probably 95% of complaining about police officers should be directed to the legislators who actually make the laws. Police officers don't get to just choose which laws to enforce or they will lose their jobs. We have the power to vote for different elected officials in America. It confuses me to no end the amount of complaining about government that goes on in this country while we still continue to reelect upwards of 90% of incumbents who run for reelection. Then people say we need "term limits" and limits to stop lobbyists from affecting "career politicians." Well maybe just not vote to reelect them next time.
Again: that doesn't help when two factions of the same party are the only options on the ballot. Voting simply doesn't work.
"The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics." - Thomas Sowell