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"Like the 21-foot rule, many current police practices were adopted when officers faced violent street gangs. Crime rates soared, as did the number of officers k
by jobu 11y ago
"Like the 21-foot rule, many current police practices were adopted when officers faced violent street gangs. Crime rates soared, as did the number of officers killed. Today, crime is at historic lows and most cities are safer than they have been in generations, for residents and officers alike. This should be a moment of high confidence in the police, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement policy group. Instead, he said, policing is in crisis."
Seeing cops with tanks in Ferguson, Missouri has been a wake-up call for many Americans. Fortunately many on the left and the right (http://truthinmedia.com/billionaire-koch-brothers-fund-campaign-against-police-militarization/ http://truthinmedia.com/billionaire-koch-brothers-fund-campa...) agree that it isn't appropriate, so hopefully we will start to see some change.
- Zigurd 11y agoThe vast majority of police should not be armed. They are simply not well enough trained.
- ant512 11y ago/s/police/people
- tomschlick 11y agoIf the population is armed the police should be armed. Simple as that. Good luck getting the population disarmed in less than a century, and thats if you get them to pass the constitutional amendment first.
- Zigurd 11y ago> If the population is armed the police should be armed. Interesting assertion. But there is no basis in fact. Legal gun owners, think of them and their choices what you will, also tend to be law-abiding.
- tomschlick 11y agoI know they are mostly law abiding. I am one of them. My point is that you can't expect a police force to go unarmed when there is a 50/50 chance someone in each call is armed. No one would want to do that job.
- Zigurd 11y ago> No one would want to do that job. That's another assertion without any basis. Cop boards are full of statements like that. Exactly 0.00% of cops making such statements have quit.
- Zikes 11y agoThose statistics have some skew, as well. "Crime" is at a low, but it's not a crime when police steal your life savings of cash via civil asset forfeiture, nor is it a crime when they put you in a chokehold until you are dead, or burden you with unreasonable financial penalties for minor traffic infractions. Crime as a category for the measure of citizens' happiness does not mean what it did 20 years ago. We can walk more neighborhoods at night with less fear, but we are more afraid than ever of what can be done to us in broad daylight by someone with a badge.