Liberty Alone

The above image is not, as you might think, US troops in Afghanistan or Iraq, it is the police in Richmond County SC.
That is military hardware they are sporting, and they seem to like it. They’ve named it the ‘peacemaker’, although I suspect they don’t get the irony.

Elsewhere police are using SWAT teams in fairly routine tasks. The number of drugs raids on innocent people which have resulted in tragedy (innocent civilians, police and dogs have all been killed) is going up.

Ordinary police officers in Chicago are being given assault rifles, the modern police officer looks more like a soldier than a public servant.

In the Twin Cities, in preparation for the RNC, police are raiding and detaining protesters and those who film the police to help protect peaceful protesters from illegal detention. Planning a protest now seems to be a crime.
Even reporters are being arrested.

Frankly, the police seem able to act with impunity. When officers commit crimes in the course of their duty they are defended by their superiors. Those who defend themselves from unknown assailants who they later find out were the police get charged with murder, the the policeman who shoots an old lady ‘drug dealer’ gets praise for bravely carrying out his duty.

I’m glad the situation is not so bad in the UK. The Met is unduly political with Iain Blair’s leadership, but we still shy away from arming our police and there’s still some expectation that they are public servants not state servants. Unfortunately, as I pointed out in an earlier post, there are abuses and they are increasing in frequency.

(H/T to the ever excellent The Art of the Possible)

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