United States police departments have been in the international headlines as of late, and not in a good way. Several damning videos have been released depicting heavy-handed police tactics.
Critics of the police have compared them to an occupying power or a “standing army” leading some to ponder on whether the police are needed at all.
The first U.S. police departments were born out of post-Civil War America; replacing neighborhood watches and town criers with Union uniformed officers during the Reconstruction era.
Since their early formation, the role of police has evolved from merely being town-criers and night watchmen, to para-military organizations of secret police.
Since the start of the so-called “War on Drugs” during the Nixon administration, the police have been finding themselves evolving to take on new enemies. The police of the 1970’s frequently found themselves out gunned; a .38 pistol is no match for a machine-gun.
Today you can find your local constables leaping out of armored, tank-like vehicles clad in all black body-armor and armed with machine guns themselves. Long gone is the Andy Griffith police officer of Mayberry. Today’s police look more like Darth Vader and his armored stormtroopers.
With the arrival of marijuana legalization in the U.S. capital, some wonder if the police will still be needed to the extent they are. Critics of the Prison for Profit and School to Prison systems say “no”.
While their motto may be “Protect & Serve”, the Supreme Court has stated that the police are not constitutionally responsible for a citizen’s safety and are under no oath to protect them from harm.
If the police are under no obligation to help a citizen and instead are enforcing unjust laws to prop up a Prison for Profit system, it is no wonder that criticism of the boys in blue continues to grow.
