There are DOJ investigations into departments like Chicago and Baltimore that found routine civil rights violations. These departments had major issues for years and years but the police omerta blocked any efforts to self correct. Things came to a head and now the scales have tipped the other way and the police are on their back foot wit…
There are DOJ investigations into departments like Chicago and Baltimore that found routine civil rights violations. These departments had major issues for years and years but the police omerta blocked any efforts to self correct. Things came to a head and now the scales have tipped the other way and the police are on their back foot with people questioning every single move they make, no matter how reasonable.
What's the lesson? The lesson is that credible oversight over state power is needed. That's not some wackadoo liberal agenda, it's a fundamental requirement for just government. If you don't have that oversight abuses *will* happen and there *will* be a backlash that goes too far.
You're also seeing innovation in cities like Newark moving back towards community policing. We're seeing that cracking down hard on crime isn't always the right thing to do - not because it hurts people's feelings but because it doesn't actually work. That urban departments are losing officers that are amenable to reform is probably the most concerning thing in this story because that is the reasonable solution to the actual issue we're having, rather than some political football everyone likes to toss around.
There is also the issue that the power of the police is given to them by the citizens they police. If the community isn't OK with killing someone for selling loosies, then the police can't kill someone for selling loosies. There is no "right" for the police to just do whatever they want.
10 or 15 years ago it was easy to find conservatives concerned about no knock warrants and other questionable police tactics. Now that the left has taken on this cause (ironic since it is liberal cities which have the biggest problems with police abuse) all the conservatives have decided that the police are paragons of virtue, beyond reproach, and that anything they do is in the best interest of society. It is no more or less idiotic than the left questioning obviously legitimate uses of force.
Like every issue the truth is in the middle. Most officers are great people. Some of them are not. Where you have people abusing their power that needs to be corrected. When you have police legitimately using force in the face of wild and dangerous criminals crucifying them is not productive. Policing strategies which are not having the desired effect need to be reexamined.
It's all common sense, but America doesn't care about common sense anymore. They care about being right and creating well defined enemies.
There are DOJ investigations into departments like Chicago and Baltimore that found routine civil rights violations. These departments had major issues for years and years but the police omerta blocked any efforts to self correct. Things came to a head and now the scales have tipped the other way and the police are on their back foot with people questioning every single move they make, no matter how reasonable.
What's the lesson? The lesson is that credible oversight over state power is needed. That's not some wackadoo liberal agenda, it's a fundamental requirement for just government. If you don't have that oversight abuses *will* happen and there *will* be a backlash that goes too far.
You're also seeing innovation in cities like Newark moving back towards community policing. We're seeing that cracking down hard on crime isn't always the right thing to do - not because it hurts people's feelings but because it doesn't actually work. That urban departments are losing officers that are amenable to reform is probably the most concerning thing in this story because that is the reasonable solution to the actual issue we're having, rather than some political football everyone likes to toss around.
There is also the issue that the power of the police is given to them by the citizens they police. If the community isn't OK with killing someone for selling loosies, then the police can't kill someone for selling loosies. There is no "right" for the police to just do whatever they want.
10 or 15 years ago it was easy to find conservatives concerned about no knock warrants and other questionable police tactics. Now that the left has taken on this cause (ironic since it is liberal cities which have the biggest problems with police abuse) all the conservatives have decided that the police are paragons of virtue, beyond reproach, and that anything they do is in the best interest of society. It is no more or less idiotic than the left questioning obviously legitimate uses of force.
Like every issue the truth is in the middle. Most officers are great people. Some of them are not. Where you have people abusing their power that needs to be corrected. When you have police legitimately using force in the face of wild and dangerous criminals crucifying them is not productive. Policing strategies which are not having the desired effect need to be reexamined.
It's all common sense, but America doesn't care about common sense anymore. They care about being right and creating well defined enemies.