Incidents like this remind us all that the police are becoming increasingly militant and authoritarian. Our constitutional rights have been eroded to the point where essentially every American can be criminalized for activities that harm no one.
So we end up with people being electrocuted because they were talking on a cell phone and doing 5 miles over the speed limit.
It's very disturbing but not surprising to see that police officers condone this type of behavior. After all, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The police expand their powers and their brutality with the justification that their work is dangerous and that any ends to ensure their safety then justify the means.
The fact is, police work is NOT very dangerous. The facts are that being a police officer isn't even in the top ten most dangerous jobs in the United states. Logging, fishing, driving a cab, trash collecting, farming, and truck driving are substantially more dangerous professions than being a police officer. Half of police officers killed annually are killed in traffic accidents, and the majority of those are not in the pursuit of suspects or rushing to a scene.
So for a given year, take 2007, take out traffic accidents and other non-violent deaths, and you’re left with 69 officers killed on the job by criminals that year. That’s out of about 850,000 officers nationwide. That breaks down to about 8 deaths per 100,000 officers, or less than twice the national average of on-the-job fatalities.
Yet despite this fact, police continue to sell the lie that their job carries a level of risk that entitles them to almost limitless discretion in their use of force. This lie has been repeated and beaten into our brains to the point where things like a 1000% increase in the use of SWAT teams since the 70s is not considered unacceptable.
It's been repeated to the point where even the police themselves believe it since most of them do not know any better and there is clearly a big incentive to not try and discredit it. Why would you want to take away an excuse to make your job easier? An excuse that allows you to escalate force without widespread public disapproval?
We are going to keep seeing more of this stuff. As the police take on more roles as tax collectors, their powers will ultimately increase. Organizations always do what they can to increase their strength, scope, and influence.
An excellent example of this is the prison guard union in California who's lobbied for tougher and longer prison sentences for non violent offenders because it ensures job security.
Anyway, it's kind of sad to see what's become of this once great nation where people at one time were free. It was only 150 years ago that the concept of a civilian police force was even barely nascent, and now look how far we've come.
The founding fathers must be rolling in their graves.
So we end up with people being electrocuted because they were talking on a cell phone and doing 5 miles over the speed limit.
It's very disturbing but not surprising to see that police officers condone this type of behavior. After all, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The police expand their powers and their brutality with the justification that their work is dangerous and that any ends to ensure their safety then justify the means.
The fact is, police work is NOT very dangerous. The facts are that being a police officer isn't even in the top ten most dangerous jobs in the United states. Logging, fishing, driving a cab, trash collecting, farming, and truck driving are substantially more dangerous professions than being a police officer. Half of police officers killed annually are killed in traffic accidents, and the majority of those are not in the pursuit of suspects or rushing to a scene.
So for a given year, take 2007, take out traffic accidents and other non-violent deaths, and you’re left with 69 officers killed on the job by criminals that year. That’s out of about 850,000 officers nationwide. That breaks down to about 8 deaths per 100,000 officers, or less than twice the national average of on-the-job fatalities.
Yet despite this fact, police continue to sell the lie that their job carries a level of risk that entitles them to almost limitless discretion in their use of force. This lie has been repeated and beaten into our brains to the point where things like a 1000% increase in the use of SWAT teams since the 70s is not considered unacceptable.
It's been repeated to the point where even the police themselves believe it since most of them do not know any better and there is clearly a big incentive to not try and discredit it. Why would you want to take away an excuse to make your job easier? An excuse that allows you to escalate force without widespread public disapproval?
We are going to keep seeing more of this stuff. As the police take on more roles as tax collectors, their powers will ultimately increase. Organizations always do what they can to increase their strength, scope, and influence.
An excellent example of this is the prison guard union in California who's lobbied for tougher and longer prison sentences for non violent offenders because it ensures job security.
Anyway, it's kind of sad to see what's become of this once great nation where people at one time were free. It was only 150 years ago that the concept of a civilian police force was even barely nascent, and now look how far we've come.
The founding fathers must be rolling in their graves.
