Tasers were supposed to substitute for lethal force; guns. Instead they are being used to force compliance with the commands of a cop. As Andrew Sullivan says, "We’re all criminals now". William Grigg at Pro Libertate has been pointing out for a long while how we are becoming a militarized police state. This must stop. The taser experiment has been a disaster. And the cops don’t serve and protect; they harass and intimidate (and sometimes injure or kill). Cops are not responsible to those whose rights they’re supposed to protect. They are responsible to each other and to the state bureaucrats above them. Promotions and tenure do not come from the citizens but from satisfying the bureaucrats. Cops are the enforcers of state violence against the citizens. Local control over the cops is what is needed. Control in hiring and firing. The cops will only be loyal to and defend those who decide on their pay. Now it’s the state. It should be you.
Today is . .
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#1 by CorkyAgain on July 30th, 2009
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Depends on what you mean by local control.
Even if the police answer only to local government, they’ll still know that their paycheck depends on that government’s ability to extract money from us mundanes. To ensure that we’ll continue to pay, they’ll continue to harass and intimidate.
The first step toward a solution is to fully restore our right to keep and bear arms, and to use them to protect ourselves and our families.
The second step is to prosecute each and every policeman who uses a taser (or any other weapon) unlawfully.
The police should no longer be allowed to confiscate any cameras or other recording equipment that might contain evidence of their activities. Doing so should be treated as an obstruction of justice, and should carry the maximum penalty associated with that crime.
#2 by CorkyAgain on July 30th, 2009
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We also need to do away with all the laws that make it a more heinous crime to injure a policeman (or his dog) than it is to injure an ordinary citizen. If we don’t want cops thinking they’re better or more important to society than the rest of us, we have to stop treating them as if they are.
If anything, the police should be expected to be models of civil, law-abiding behavior. They should not, as they do now, have what amounts to an automatic “get out of jail free” card. A statement from their captain or police chief that their actions were “in accord with department guidelines” should NOT be enough for them to avoid prosecution.
#3 by Mark on July 30th, 2009
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“Local control” can mean a number of things: personal, family, neighborhood, small town, but nothing much larger. Maybe even small town is too large. The cops would depend on those units for hiring, firing and pay. The question then becomes: what would cops do? Their function would be to protect the rights of those who hire them. This doesn’t necessarily mean violence. Nor does it mean that every person, family, neighborhood, etc., need hire police. It would be up to them. Protection through personal weapons is fine, too. What is necessary is to get the state out of its protection racket.
#4 by CorkyAgain on July 30th, 2009
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(Sorry, can’t stop yet.)
If found guilty, a policeman should be sentenced to the same punishment an ordinary citizen would. No more six months paid suspension when the mundanes get five years in prison for the same offense!
Failing these and other reforms necessary to restore the police forces’s sense of itself as a member and servant of the community, they shouldn’t expect us to willingly consent to their authority. They’ll have to continue coercing our obedience.
#5 by Mark on July 30th, 2009
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Go, Corky, go!
We cannot let the police continue to coerce our obedience. We are finished if we do, and we may be finished anyway.