| Jeff Higgins |
12-18-2007 08:20 AM |
These disasters already happen all to frequently; they don't need more toys to make it any worse. SWAT team murders of innocent citizens is at an all-time high. SWAT team murders when serving warrents is at an all-time high. The Gestapo had nothing on our modern SWAT teams, who use pretty much the same justifications for the same tactics.
Officer Christopher Long is a prime example of the juvenile tough-guy mentality that pervades SWAT ranks. He went to Peyton Strickland's home just itching for some action, so he could puff himself up in front of his buds. He wanted a firefight, but without the danger of an armed opponent, thank you very much. He wanted no-risk bragging rights. He used the incredibly unbelievable excuse that he mistook the sounds of his team's own battering ram, on the outside of the door, right next to him for gunfire originating from within the home. And he got away with it. How on Earth did that happen?
We live in a strange environment concerning our police in these post- 9/11 days. They seem to have been put on a pedestal, as supporting truth, justice, and the American Way and all of that. It has become very fashioable to support them in all that they do. Anyone who questions them, or their tactics, is "Un-American". Maybe even a terrorist, or enemy of the state. Sounds a lot like pre-WWII Germany. Or McCarthyism. Ironic, coming from a generation that called them "pigs" in their drug hazed youth of the '60's.
Now I'm by no means advocating a return to that kind of disrespect. Most of them deserve our respect. They do a very difficult job. We do, however, need to shift the balance back towards us, the citizens of this country, when dealing with police authority. They have gone too far. Not just the use of SWAT teams to carry out duties formerly done by a single cop, but in other areas as well. Prosecuting citizens with absolutely no evidence, no witnesses, soley on a cop's word in traffic court, for example. The growing use of tasers to take down, and "teach a lesson" to people who should have been dealt with by other means. Our police engage in a laundry list of at least un-Constitutional, and at times needlessly dangerous or even fatal encounters with relatively benign "suspects". It has to stop. We, as a society, need to reign them in a bit on several fronts.
Our system of justice was designed from the outset as incorporating checks and balances. Those are now out of balance. The Constitution has been undermined by our lawmakers, granting police priveledges they were never intended to have. Far wiser men (than we are blessed with leading us today) recognized the need to put limits on police powers. They all were very much aware of abuses rampant in other countries, and wanted none of that here. They seemed to have a far better grasp of human nature, and very cautiously granted any power and authority to not only police, but themselves as well. We no longer seem to feel the need for such caution. We are living with the results of that.
Our police (and lawmakers for that matter) are no more inherently honest than society as a whole. But we treat them as if they are, and give them leeway they were never meant to have. It could actually be argued that both groups are somewhat less suited to those priveledges than society as a whole. Congress has a higher per capita population of convicted criminals than the population at large. Police have a higher incidence of domestic abuse than the population at large, to the point where the Lautenburg ammendment was required to allow those convicted of such to even continue to carry weapons.
Bottom line is that we, the citizens, need to demand that our police return to accountability to us. We need to reign them back in to the rules laid out for their behavior so long ago, and so diluted today. We need to take them down off the pedestal and return to very critically reviewing their actions. We tried that here in Seattle, but the chief managed to castrate the citizens' review committee by obtaining veto authority over their every decision. That is wrong; he works for us. What are they afraid of? The citizens they police? That attitude should alarm us all.
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