Assertions have been made that there is a new nationwide crime wave and a hate campaign against the police in America; that the police fear the next video purporting to illustrate police brutality; that they have been stripped of the equipment they need to defend themselves, and are being treated as if they, not the criminals, are the enemy.
This is nonsense. There is no “War on the Police”. Violent attacks against police officers remain at historic lows, even though approximately 1,000 people have been killed nationwide by the police last year (only 54 officers have been prosecuted nationwide, despite this fact). What is happening is that there is a modest push for sensible law enforcement reforms from groups as diverse as Campaign Zero, Koch industries, the Cato Institute, the Leadership Conference, Cato Institute and ACLU. Unfortunately, as the rhetoric ratchets up, some police agencies are increasingly resistant to any reforms at all, forgetting whom they serve, ignoring constitutional limits on what they can do, and even denying the idea that they should be under civilian control.
Reforms suggested are independent investigation of police violence, demilitarizing police forces, or ending “for-profit policing”. But meanwhile in 14 states police officers have been given special legal protection against indictment, a “super presumption of innocence” that removes the threat of disciplinary action, and gives them special privileges when interrogated. There is one law for the police and another law for us, and a belief among some that American civil rights and liberties are actually an impediment to public safety. (Extracted from “The Logic of the Police State”, Mathew Harwood).
Taken along with Trumpism, a military contemptuous of civilian control, and a frightening coarsening of the general culture, the trajectory of public life in the United States does not look promising.
American police officers are trained to shoot to kill, not injure and to fire at the chest because it improves their chances of hitting their target. Combine the unimpeachability of an officer’s judgment under the law with racist leanings and a kill-not-capture modus operandi, and you end up with the startling figure of 1,134 killings by law enforcement officers across the U.S. last year, a figure you would expect to come out of an actual war zone. Of those who died at the hands of the police in 2015, young black men were nine times more likely to be victims than other Americans. (Tomgram)
The shocking thing about this slaughter is that the backlash comes overwhelmingly from the black community, notably, Black Lives Matter. The least concerned seem to be the Republican Presidential candidates, who go out of their way to praise and support the police. I may have missed someone deploring the violence, but as far as I can gather there is a deafening silence from right-leaning white citizens about the dead (who are mostly African American). If this is unfair, pray quote chapter and verse.
The cruel irony here is, the ever-high number of people killed by the people will likely drive an increase in crime. If people feel as if the authorities are illegitimate because they kill so many innocent people, they are less likely to obey the law. The very laws designed to stop crime may actually have the reverse effect. Now this doesn’t excuse anyone in Black Lives Matter who goes on riots and destroys property. it simply explains their actions.
Overall, I think the police should be demilitarised. But I agree with Republicans that any cuts to law enforcement would be wrong. There needs to be investment in better police training and police should be given cameras to wear so they can prove their innocence in violent clashes. And while there is no ‘war on cops’ as such, I think some Black Lives Matter activists cross the line between criticising policing policy and criticising law enforcement as an institution.