A society, any society, needs a well-trained police force to keep the peace lest anarchy prevail.
Law enforcement is essential to bring rapists, murderers, thieves, con men and even politicians to justice when they commit wrongdoing against law abiding citizens. No one denies that.
But there has to be some balance between police being the protectors rather than the offenders which, unfortunately, is becoming the case more and more often.
Protests have erupted recently over the deaths of GEORGE FLOYD in Minneapolis, DANIEL PRUDE in Rochester, BREONNA TAYLOR in Louisville, Elijah McClain of Aurora, Colorado and now the shootings of JACOB BLAKE of Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot seven times in the back, and a 13-year-old autistic child named LINDEN CAMERON of Salt Lake City, who was handcuffed when shot multiple times by police.
In Louisiana, there’s the unbelievable case of VICTOR WHITE III, managed to fatally shoot himself, while in the custody of Iberia Parish sheriff’s deputies. Unbelievable because according to deputies – upheld by the parish coroner – White allegedly shot himself in the chest while his hands were cuffed – behind his back.
In 2019, Ronald Greene died at the hands of Louisiana State Police and a Union Parish sheriff’s deputy after a chase from Ouachita Parish into Union Parish, details of which are conflicting, depending on whom you talk to – state police or doctors.
And then there’s the brutal beating of KENTDRICK RATIFF by Hammond police back in 2017.
There are three primary culprits that have led to widespread abuses of American citizens by violating their rights under the 4th and 14th Amendments. You can refresh yourself on the rights guaranteed by those amendments HERE but basically, the 4th Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures of their homes, papers and personal effects.
Section 1 of the 14th Amendment says, in part: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
The “no-knock” law, passed in 1970 during Richard Nixon’s term over the determined but in vain opposition of Sen. Sam Ervin (D-N.C.), who spoke against the bill for 4 ½ hours on the floor of the Senate, was the first major erosion of individual rights.
The second was the omnibus crime bill of 1984, passed during the Ronald Reagan administration, that created the ASSET FORFEITURE PROGRAM, aka Policing for Profit, under which if someone in your home or car possesses a small quantity of marijuana unbeknownst to you, you can still lost your home or car. Any cash found in your home or car also is forfeited and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.
If the feds (DEA, ATF, FBI, etc.) are involved, they get a cut of the cash or whatever money the sale of your property brings while the local law enforcement agencies – municipal, parish or state police, get up to 80 percent. You can read about selected cases of this legalized theft HERE.
Finally, the third major contributor to growing incidents of police lawlessness is the rapid growth of a program that allows local police departments to obtain grants to purchase MILITARY HARDWARE from the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security.
Some handy law enforcement aids procured through program for local agencies include tanks, helicopters, 50-caliber machine guns, urban assault vehicles, tanks, airplanes, grenade launchers and even a submarine.
Of the three, the no-knock raid has probably done the most harm. Besides giving armor-suited robo cops an aura of invincibility, one of the biggest drawbacks of the no-knock raids is the incredible numbers of wrong address raids in which the homes of innocent people are often awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of their front doors being smashed in and the profanity-laced shouting of macho-cops shoving bewildered family members, guns held to the heads of children (one child, a 13-year-old, had his head blown off when the officer’s gun accidentally discharged) while dogs – family pets – are routinely shot and killed with no provocation..
Lest you think these are the hysterical rantings of some conspiracy nut, they’re not. You can read the stories for yourself in Radley Balko’s unsettling book RISE of the WARRIOR COP: THE MILITIRIZATION of AMERICA’S POLICE FORCES. This book will alternately jolt you to spasms of rage, depression, helplessness, and alarming concern over just who poses the bigger threat – criminals with no moral compass or cops with no moral compass but who do have a badge and a gun which gives them the misconception of power and control.
What’s even worse, for the most part in cases of wrong address no-knock raids and even accidental shootings of innocent people or deliberate shootings of household pets, the cops are protected from legal liability by something called QUALIFIED IMMUNITY.
But repeatedly shooting a 13-year-old autistic child who was running from officers has to be beyond the pale.
Wrong address raids, abuses of asset forfeiture, and shooing innocent victims have gone from isolated incidents to a disturbing trend, a trend that must be stopped.
A society needs a well-trained police force that doesn’t take an “us against them” position but rather becomes a part of that society.
Louisiana Voice 
I hate to use the terms in the context of our country, but we all need to study fascism and police states to see if history, not to mention the present in some other countries, can teach us anything. And, we need to remember that anti-fascism is not new in this country – it has been around for decades and it exists for the good, not the evil with which it has been branded with what has become a term of condemnation, “antifa.”
Think about it: Who, in their right mind, and with any knowledge of what fascism is, would not be anti-fascist? In fact, there are plenty of people in this country who are concerned about recent events and who are sincere patriots who want to live in a free democratic republic. These people are not evil, but the very reverse of it. They are not out in the streets rioting, looting, or doing any of the other things the right wing has charged “antifas” with. So, we should never let ourselves be misled into believing anti-fascism is a dirty word.
Law enforcement clearly needs to enforce the law, but not abuse it. Some in the field have apparently come to believe their authority is above the law. Some statements made by people at the highest levels of government have sent signals that police should become more, not less, authoritarian. Some of these exhortations to police seem to reflect what happens in actual police states. Again, it is up to us to observe what is happening and vote responsibly in all elections. That’s really all we, as individuals can do.
No-knock and asset forfeiture are both a direct result of the Drug War. Because LEO were always on the look-out for drugs, and anyone, anywhere could possibly be a “criminal,” they had an excuse to use these policing methods.
Alcohol prohibition in the 30s was such a damaging public policy that they passed a Constitutional amendment to end it. Then they turned right around and criminalized the use of marijuana and then other drugs.
Drug abuse is bad and does cause problems, but drug prohibition causes many more problems. Like my friends in the organization Law Enforcement Action Partnership (formerly Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) say, “You can get over an addiction but you can’t get over a conviction.”.
The job of the police should be to serve and protect. They are not equipped to handle mental health and similar societal problems.
Legalizing marijuana for adult recreational, as well as medical, use would be a first step in ending no-knock and asset forfeiture, plus it would save all the money we are spending to incarcerate non-violent users.
Cook-Taylor’s comment is about as concise, logical and spot-on explanation of the problem (and solution) that anyone could possibly provide. It should be required reading for everyone in law enforcement – from U.S. Supreme Court justices, federal and state court judges and prosecutors all the way down to local, single-officer police departments.