In the late 80’s, our high school’s
government department hosted talks given by different law enforcement agencies
from local to federal levels. When a
local police officer gave his speech, a kid began arguing with the cop over an
injustice committed against him. He
insisted that he was unlawfully stopped and searched, as well as harassed. I was pretty appalled by the story and couldn’t
understand why he would be targeted.
This kid belonged to a wealthy family and was a delinquent attention
whore, but that didn’t justify his treatment at the hands of the police.
I asked him about the incident
after class, and told me another version where he was lawfully stopped. He went on tell how they were drinking
underage and smoking weed, hence the search. The kid admitted that he took
creative license with the story for a chance to annoy a cop. This was my first experience with the “more
to the story” scenario. The “militarized”
police issue bears little difference.
Cop hatred is an increasing fad,
and it spreads to otherwise rational and conservative citizens during a
Democratic presidency. A recent example
was the “New World Order” fear that reached popularity during the Clinton
years. Although the FEMA “Death Camp”
wave originated under Bush, we’re now apparently facing a UN invasion under
Obama.
The most important thing to
understand is the “militarized” aspect.
Critics most often cite military appearance as evidence, but if this
whole mess were real, one of the most important factors would be
jurisdiction. Law enforcement in our
country exists on the federal, state and local levels. These levels determine what laws can be
enforced by a particular agency and where they may be enforced. Federal entities have no command authority
over the smaller jurisdictions. They can
investigate each other and take legal action against them, but the feds can’t
command the other branches. The military
doesn’t even come into the picture.
Thus, if the federal government issued death warrants for all [insert
group here], other jurisdictions don’t fall under their command.
While state and local agencies
receive federal grants and equipment, this assistance does not come with
instructions to follow orders. Programs
like 10-33, which provides surplus military gear like armored vehicles, are designed
to provide gear to agencies that can’t afford it otherwise. The intent is to provide options to deal with
increasing levels of violence in acts of terrorism, active shooters, increased
cartel activity, etc.
The critics of late cite the
physical appearance of SWAT teams and similar groups as evidence that they are
acting as the military. The use of
military gear and combat tactics is nothing new. It goes back as far as the “Tommy Gun.” When gangsters deployed the submachine gun
and against the police, it was time to step up the game. The 1997 Los Angeles bank robbery shooting
underscored a situation where the police were behind the curve in gear and tactics.
As I explained to an online critic,
if a fleeing murderer took shelter in the home across the street and fired on
police, I assured the critic he would be alone in charging into the situation
in a polyester uniform with a .38 special in a Crown Victoria. When the call is made to scrape up his
bleeding body from the street, it will be done by a specially trained team
wearing tactical body armor, driving an armored vehicle and equipped with
shields, rifles, less-lethal munitions and a bomb robot.
Understand that police don’t have
the option to fight fair. We must win
and come home when the shift is over.
The feds aren’t providing cannons, frag grenades, machine guns, mortars,
missiles or tanks. They offer law
enforcement tools. Just as our nation
has done for ages, we endeavor to stay tactically, technically and logistically
ahead of the criminal element because we don’t want to be another third world
stain on the map living under a criminal cartel like Mexico or much of the
Middle East.
Share this blog when you see the
paranoid posts. Often they will reply
with memes or links to screw-ups and incidents where police have screwed up,
but challenge them to show military action.
Police are more liability conscious and careful than ever, but that’s
fodder for another blog. Ask how it
differs from a citizen using military technology to defend their home
(AR-15). Chances are you’re dealing with
someone who’s still butthurt over getting busted for that joint back in high
school.
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