War has been declared -- on you
Here's a blog post that should be of interest to Portlanders:
Painted on police cars is, "to protect and serve." Whom were police protecting when they drew their guns on a sleeping man? Whom were police serving when they shot an unarmed man?The whole thing is here.Modern police forces have become militarized, as Radley Balko covers in detail here. Police officers are not trained to protect and serve; they are trained to shoot first, and ask questions later.
| Posted at 4:46 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (6)
What to worry? In good time we will all embrace the diversity of our Police wearing SWAT outfits as everyday uniforms.
Ride the trolley, smoke a joint and drink the Kool-Aid.
Posted by Abe | March 11, 2010 7:11 PM
Boy, this sounds more whacked than the castigated "deniers." What's really whacked is the way cityhall runs the police bureau like a circus. You know the old saw: Throw the police under the bus immediately no matter what the event, and if this fails, fire the police chief. Oh, and also promise more police training. I think a better way is to pull the police bureau away from cityhall, and put it under a sheriff whose election occurs with some frequency. Compliment this with an independent third party special event review board also elected city wide.
Posted by Bob Clark | March 11, 2010 9:10 PM
Radko runs his own blog, The Agitator, with a focus on militarization of the police,
http://www.theagitator.com/category/paramilitary-police-raids/
Ironically, some of the least militarized police I've seen and talked to are the Pentagon Police two of whom were shot unprovoked a couple weeks ago and took out the perpetrator in self defense. They aren't looking for trouble. It can be done.
Posted by Grady Foster | March 12, 2010 7:49 AM
Wasn't this a direct result of the "arms race" of the criminal class. The good old days of criminals carrying .38 revolvers that may or may not work are long gone. The 80's brought us Uzi's, Tec-9's, Mac-10's and Ak-47's. What were the police supposed to do. The criminals declared war on us and the police responded.
Posted by mp97303 | March 12, 2010 10:04 AM
It's been awhile so please forgive my lack of memory. A woman had a lawful restraining order to prevent her husband from molesting her, he was beating on her door and she had the police on the other end of her phone. He broke in and murdered her. In the suit that followed, all the way to the supreme court, the court ruled the police are under no obligation to protect. I have no idea what "serve" might mean, unless it is at the city council's funtions such as handing over funds and/or hors d'oeuvres.
All goes to show that a steady aim goes a long way in protecting yourself.
Posted by KISS | March 12, 2010 2:50 PM
We are living in a POLICE STATE!
Posted by AL M | March 13, 2010 4:02 PM