After my recent posting about the cop who shot a miniature donkey, who was just checking to see who the people were that had entered his property. This little donkey was less than 4 feet tall, was friendly, and was just curious. But the people shot and killed him. They shoot and kill about 25 to 30 dogs each day in the United States, and it becomes all too clear that they take a pretty authoritarian view of their own authority, and a complete lack of respect for the people they are supposed to be sworn to serve.
I want to support law enforcement, but I definitely do not support bullies who abuse the law, and who abuse their authority. With the case of most of the pets they shoot and kill each day, I understand that some of these are guard dogs at sites of criminal enterprise. I understand that some of these dogs pose a threat to the officers who are there to serve warrants. But in a lot of these cases, it is excessive force. And it is clear that the people have alternatives to firearms and tasers, but choose not to use them. It is a choice.
In many cases, the police aren't even sure if they have the correct address, and as it turns out, many times, it later turns out that they shoot pets (or people) at the wrong address. They shoot people who have done nothing wrong. It is documented. It happens. And although there will be people that will claim that these cases are isolated and don't happen very often, I will say that the fact that they happen even once, is not acceptable. It is not acceptable that the people who are sworn to serve the people and to protect the public, often take a very careless attitude towards the rights and property of the people.
So despite the fact that I want to support the police, because I want to support law enforcement, I often find myself having this dilemma.
I remember years ago when there had been a murder that was all over the local news. Within days, innocent citizens were being mistreated by police, because the people were "shaking the trees" to get information that might lead them to the killer.
I remember my brother was going to school at the same high school that I had previously attended. The school was in downtown Tulsa, and my family lived close to downtown, so my brother walked downtown to school. As I think most of us have experienced in the noise of traffic, or in a crowded place like a shopping mall, my brother thought he kept hearing someone call his name. He would turn around and look, but didn't see anyone, so he could continue on to school. And then without warning, a cop pulled his car across the sidewalk and blocked my brother. He got out and asked him where he was going, and asked to see ID (despite the fact that my brother was just minding his business and had committed no crime, and wasn't operating a vehicle, which means the police had no probable cause to detain him, or to demand ID).
My brother explained that he was going to school. He was clearly going to school. He was just a high schooler, and was carrying books. And the high school was only a couple more blocks away.
The cop at one point, didn't like one of the answers my brother provided, and physically threatened him. He said that he'd beat the crap out of him, arrest him and throw him in jail.
My brother was scared, but eventually was able to walk on to school The cop followed him, and when my brother attempted to walk around to the far side of the school, where his locker was, the cop stopped him and ordered him to go into the closest door or he'd arrest him on the spot. Despite trying to explain about the locker, the cop threatened him again, so my brother ran into the building.
That situation was over with, but I've never forgotten that.
I remember how, in investigating that same murder, the police had gone to a garage apartment that my parents rented out. They ransacked the place. Clearly having no respect for the property of hard working citizens. They broke furniture. They dumped cigar ashes on the carpet and trampled it into the carpet.
and in the end, they had the wrong man. The guy that rented there had absolutely nothing to do with the murder, and in fact, it was later learned that the guy that was responsible with politically connected, and to this day, protected because of the bad PR it would have on the family, and instead the guilty guy was put away in some kind of mental facility.
I have had more than one occasion where bully police have treated me rudely when I've just been in a store, or coming out of a store, having done nothing wrong. I have no criminal record. I've never been arrested. I'm an old white guy. Yet they treated me that way. So when I hear of young black men being treated the way that they claim in many cases, I often have to believe that they are not going to treat a young black man better than an old white guy.
A friend of mine used to be a dispatcher for a small town outside of Tulsa, and he has told me stories of funny things that have happened at the station, or that police officers have told him about some of the arrests they have made. He has also told me about a couple of cops that he thought were using excessive force. And later, he was told by other cops that "the guy is an asshole". It was clear that the other cops even knew what he was doing.
I feel like the cops protect other cops, because an allegiance they feel they need to have, because otherwise the courts (and the media (the public)) would demand justice. So they feel protective of themselves and feel under attack, but the truth is, the bad cops are what is causing them to be under attack.
I used to be skeptical of the citizen review boards in some cities. These boards are made up of various citizens (and politicians) who review some of the violent altercations that the police have with citizens. I always felt that it was unfair to be reviewed by people that were never trained on what police work is, and what police actually face when they go out on duty ever day.
But now, I feel like there are too many bullies with guns and badges, and that it might be time for citizen review boards that can provide oversight when police wont police themselves.
I think about how we judge policing based upon safety, but not on whether or not they prioritize enforcing obedience at any cost. It's the "any cost", that I feel almost every time, is the cost paid by the public, not the police. I feel like the police often escalate a situation instead of de-escalate. and then when someone resists, the police justify excessive force, when de-escalation would have sufficed in at least a few of the cases.
I hate for it to come to this, but I'm to that point.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.
When I think about the previous words from the Declaration of Independence, it becomes clear to me that this is the whole basis for our law, and absolutely nothing should supersede that. When the police are going about their duties, even those noble effects cannot, under any circumstances, take precedence over that. And yet, time and time again, we have been conditioned to think that public safety overrides those basic principles. We've been conditioned to believe that these fundamental principles can be superseded by efforts of "national security". I believe tyrannical government organizations have been manipulating us to believe this is okay.
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