Are Cops Constitutional?
Bill St. Clair links to this 2001 article asking a fundamental question.
Read the whole thing, and also consider how seldom the judicial branch restrains the executive branch's blue-uniformed enforcers.
What would Lee Greenwood say?
posted by Concerned American | 1:45 AM
4 Comments:
And we won't forgive the men who'll try
To take our liberty
So when we get fed up
at the view of this mess we're in today
Well there ain't no doubt we'll cap these men
Down to 4 MOA!
How does that article jibe with President George Washington's use of a federal milita to violently put down the Whiskey Rebellion of the early 1790's?
"The federalized militia force of 12,950 men was a large army by American standards of the time: the army that had been with Washington during the Revolutionary War had often been smaller"
"Because relatively few men volunteered for militia service, a draft was used to fill out the ranks."
"In Maryland, Governor Thomas Sim Lee sent 800 men to quash an anti-draft riot in Hagerstown; about 150 people were arrested"
"When the federalized militia arrived in that town later that month, suspected pole-raisers were rounded up. Two civilians were killed in these operations"
"On September 29, an unarmed boy was shot by an officer whose pistol accidentally fired. Two days later, a man was stabbed to death by a soldier while resisting arrest."
All quotes from Wikipedia, "Whiskey Rebellion"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Rebellion
This was all over the federal goverment taxing booze to pay off the war. I support the goals of a vastly reduced federal goverment but we do ourselves no favors deluding ourselves with B.S. such as that article.
The change started in the the early 1980's with the War on Drugs. Prior to that, we were peace officers. Our job was to preserve the public peace and prevent violations of law, not arrest people. With the advent of the War on Drugs, we went from being Peace Officers to Police Officers. We did what the PTB told us to do and the Fourth Amendement was circumscribed and then shredded outright. Asset Forfeiture was the carrot on the end of the stick that motivated police agencies because money meant more toys. More arrests meant bigger budgets and more promotions which meant a bigger pension check at the end of your thirty-year service life. Kevlar helmets, MP-5'S and hi-cap semi-autos were the de riguer for the young "boot-and-shoots" who were out to make a name for themselves. So now you have the Columbia, MO SWAT fiasco and other egregious rapes of our Constitutional protections in the name of drugs, raw milk, vehicle abatement, vitamins, G-8 protests, etc.
Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the "BOBBIES" - the London Metropolitan Police had penned several principals of police reform. One of the most important ones was: THE POLICE ARE THE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE ARE THE POLICE. Now, it's just US vs. THEM. As a thirty-year veteran of the streets of SoCal, it makes me sad. We are at very dangerous crossroads.
Mission creep. No political body in authority can have command of a private army without finding more ways to keep it busy. Ways that feed their need for power and also bring in more money to build more monuments to themselves.
George Washington, a whiskey distiller himself, unleashed the dogs on people performing their own Tea Party, which was a GREAT idea BEFORE the Revolution. When people get in offive, they change. Teddy Roosevelt unleashed the army on the Bonus March veterans who only wanted what was due them.
Too much power in the hands of one man or a city council or a state legislature.
If cops choose their illegal orders over constitutional restrictions, they should expect ... disapproval.
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