Assuming the societal need for police, one could acknowledge the need for police to be on balance with organized crime in terms of weapons, communications, etc. The key word is balance.
Today however, as a result of 9/11 overreach, many local police departments have adopted unbalanced methods of fulfilling their missions. For the past several years they have had a homeland security feeding frenzy buying vast amounts of new hardware (armored vehicles, helicopters, non-lethal weapons, riot gear, and surveillance tools) and attending more federal training sessions. The later serve to torque them up, infusing them with desire to use all of the new special tactics they have learned. They are inculcated into the deep dark stealth world of security in which everything is a potential threat and everyone is a potential enemy. They naturally feel like a member in a small elite group, and in some ways above the law, because they are a small elite group and they think they are the law, when in reality they are just supposed to enforce the laws in a fair and balance way.
The latest example in post-9/11 testosterone driven police state overkill comes from the small town of Berwyn Heights in Prince George's County, Maryland. The mayor's wife was the innocent victim of identity theft in which a drug ring was using her as an unsuspecting shipping address in order to transfer marijuana.The Prince George's County police conducted a raid on the small town mayor's house killing the mayor's two pet dogs, hand cuffing his mother in law on the floor and roughing them all up.
Berwyn Heights mayor Cheye Calvo called on the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division to investigate the raid and other similar actions by Prince George's law enforcement. He said officers burst into his house without knocking or announcing themselves, in violation of the warrant they had.
Article and Video Interview of Calvo Family
Sources:
Baltimore Sun, Prince George's raid prompts call for probe , August 8, 2008.
4 comments:
I don't even want to think of what would happen if those people were not white.
LH
You're always so insightful.
It's not just local police. I'm sure you're aware of the MD State Police spying incident (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.spy18jul18,0,3787307.story) that, I believe, was originally aired by Democracy Now! (http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/21/docs_reveal_maryland_state_police_spied).
As a Marylander I am particulary inflamed that my tax dollars paid for such obscene activity.
Anon,
Now that you mention it, I've been wanting to look deeper into the State Police spying. Thanks.
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