Everyone from Rand Paul to the Tea Party has been complaining about the militarization of police, specially in Ferguson, Indiana.
Barbarians are at the gates, and they are worried about the police. Consider this comment I saw on Facebook:
Dave R: As a former military member with a law enforcement focus, I utterly detest the very apparent militarization, increasingly belligerent behavior, unfettered misconduct, and disturbing tone law enforcement agencies all across America are setting with the public.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine
I challenged his views and he admitted wearing body armor, “was trained and qualified as a rifleman, grenadier, M-60 gunner, and yes, I actually worked alongside those who protect POTUS. Interestingly enough, during my 14+ years of service (1st and 2nd Gulf War) not once did I abuse the power with which I was entrusted. Moreover, citizens have the right not to be intimidated and pushed around by people who wear shiny badges and carry a gun. They chose their profession and derive their paychecks from the hard work of the citizens they are duty bound to protect! Troll elsewhere or with someone else dude. You are barking up the wrong tree.”
Yes, I’m the troll for wanting to protect cops and business owners from this:
These so-called “libertarians” claim to support individual rights, but where’s their support for the individual business owner that loses his investment? Where’s the support for the cop that might get beaten to death? Or shot? Or return to his wife without an eye? Yes, it happens.
Instead he tells me that the shooting of Michael Brown was not justified. Of course, Rambo is now an expert on police work, the Court of Public Opinion is in session and since the victim is black, the crime must be racist. Behold, the FBI opened a civil rights investigation, did they do that for the white victims of the Jenna 6? Of course not, the FBI letters have become For Black Individuals, and if you ain’t black, you ain’t right, and you ain’t getting nothin’ from Uncle Sam.
I know what you’re thinking, I’m sounding like a white supremacist, a laughable notion considering all the times I have quoted Malcom X and his defense of the 2nd Amendment. Truth be told, I’m afraid of looters of any color, if I see white sports fans looting after the game, I want the cops out there shooting. Maybe you and me are the last color blind people in America, perhaps we’re the only ones that refuse to see race when everyone else sees it in 3-D.
Now my adversaries will call me a Statist, they think the only choices are Statism or Anarchy when our founding fathers, Ayn Rand, and normal libertarians believe in limited government. Don’t take me wrong, I’ll reject Statism when some police chief wants the right to deny me a gun permit because he doesn’t like me, I’ll reject Statism when it means smart guns for us, regular guns for cops. But rejecting Statism doesn’t mean letting the looters loot or letting the cops die because you refused to give them the tools they need to do the job.
If the governors don’t have the guts to call the National Guard, what choice do we have but militarizing the police? Governors today are too scared of offending the denizens of the ghetto, they’re terrified of being called racist, they think that attacking violent people means they’re Bull Connors. Yet today we’re not dealing we activists singing “We Shall Overcome.” So what is the government to do? Hold back? Let them destroy everything so we all have to pay taxes to fix it?
Let’s ask Mr. Google what was the cost of the Rodney King riots:
Rodney King pleads to the rioters to make peace May 1, 1992 in Los Angeles, CA. The riots left more than 50 dead, over 4,000 were injured and cost $1 billion in property damage.
What happens in Ferguson doesn’t always stay in Ferguson. We have to chose between civilization and barbarism, between the rule of law and the rule of mobs. This isn’t a greater good argument, as a Randian I never make those, but looters and thugs don’t have individual rights. They are criminals, we have to stop them. They can have their day in court or get a fine or pay restitution, I don’t care, but they cannot be allowed to roam like savages destroying everything in their path.
[…] Go read this article… […]
The part of the story that was left out is that police have no duty or responsibility to protect any individual, so the general duty the police have is fine. I have no problem with police having the same tools as the military. I have an issue with citizens not having the same tools as police.
It is not the tools so much as some police seem to think they can use force for something other than their self protection, when in fact legally they can not. This is exactly the reason that the military is prohibited from police operations on US Soil.
I won’t call you a statist….but I will call you a boot-licking throne-sniffer. I take the position that the police need to go through a radical DE-militarization and if that results in a few more cops being shot across the nation than that’s worth the tradeoff. If cops don’t like that, they can quit. They will be replaced by more courageous individuals. If firemen had ROE like police all they would do is show up at a fire and watch it burn to the ground because that would “ensure that they get to go home to their wives”. It’s worth a few more cops dying per year to discourage them from executing a liberty-killing 75,000 no-knock warrants per year.
Firemen wear gas masks, scuba tanks, boots, jackets, and they’re not hated by the community. When was the last time someone shot a fireman or try to kill him? Besides, sometimes firemen don’t do their jobs, a basement had ammo and they let the house burned, I read about it recently.
Boot-licking throne sniffer? Hardly, just a Randian who opposes the savages. You are an altruist, and I don’t mean that as a compliment, it’s not. You worship the cult of self-sacrifice while I worship trade. Relationships between individuals should be through choice and trade, not force, but when a looter forces his way upon a business owner, then force must be met with force. When people act like animals, they must be treated as animals.
I do agree on no-knock warrants, but that’s not the issue. Doing drugs or hiring whores is a harmless act, an individual act that hurts nobody. Looting isn’t harmless.
But there lies the problem. Yes, police should have all the guns and gear needed for rioting, looting, stand-offs, hostage situations and other large scale law enforcement situations and events. But why are these things being toted out for simple operations? Why bring an entire SWAT team to raid a house over a few ounces of pot at 3AM? To serve warrants? Why shoot a dog that is caged? And the cops are just far too aggressive and antagonistic these days. No, not all of them, but there are more than enough today who seem eagar and happy to threaten and provoke citizens, with the sheer intent of beating that citizen to pulp, or worse yet shooting them dead. In the end, they are almost always cleared of any and all charges by the department. It would have been very easy to check if that router was a secured or open line before tossing flashbangs inside and kicking in the door. Just had to drive by with an iPad and look for a WiFi connection. It could have given them pause to know that this house might not be the source. Do you really want to see a USA where military hardware is patrolling the streets, drones overhead, and the people cowering at the sight of the police? Use that stuff on looters, use it on street gangs and drug cartels, use it on the border, use it at a bank robbery, all totally acceptable applications. But it is not appropriate for DUI checks, to bring in a ‘deadbeat’ dad, or small time raids (many based on bad info or poor intel). The point is not that they have the equipment, but that they abuse it as often as possible in many cities and towns for coast to coast.
Article of the year on our SWATzie police militarization.
http://www.steynonline.com/6524/cigars-but-not-close
The cops need to lose the camp and jack boots.
Camo