The Militarization of American Police
I enjoyed this article by Steven Greenhut, The Militarization of American Police. He details something that’s obvious to anyone who is over 35 and has been paying attention: the culture of law enforcement in the U.S. has shifted further towards an “us against everyone else,” hyper-armed and hyper-aggressive militaristic “occupation mode” than it has ever been before.
Police often tell me, “Our only concern is getting home safely at the end of the day.” Such statements reveal two common traits in modern police forces. The first is an outsized sense of danger. In reality, police work isn’t in the top ten dangerous professions, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Indeed, no government job is in the top ten. The second attitude is the self-centered nature of police work. Concern for the public takes a backseat to concern for “officer safety.”
A pretty good morning read. The Militarization of American Police.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Bill,
As a recently retired police officer, perhaps I’m a little biased here, but as a libertarian I can also see the other side of the situation too. However, as much respect as I have for FEE — I’ve subscribed to their publications in the past — the article was way over the top and completely devoid of any practical insight.
The first case Mr. Greenhut mentions is that of an 18-year girl with a knife who was shot and killed by the police. He tries to minimize the danger by calling the girl tiny, but it simply shows the author’s ignorance of the very real danger someone with a knife presents. The minimum — I repeat, minimum — distance of safety for confronting someone with a knife is 21 ft. and yet cops typically are dealing with individuals as close as 3 ft or less. Why an 18 yr’. old female with a knife is not considered a dangerous person by the author is beyond me. He also fails to mention other people in the park, the fact that the female was running through it, and that the police are not charged with running away from such situations (as he suggests they do) but run towards them. I imagine had the officers “tactically retreated” and then the “tiny teen” slashed and hacked some innocent bystander, he would have criticized them for failing to take action.
The other cases cited are also presented similarly lopsided without any thought to the real danger the police face. Any action by the individual is merely a movement while the officers all act in a sinister manner. Any defense they raise is swatted away while opposing accounts are given great weight without any consideration that perhaps the the witnesses weren’t credible, may have been unable to see what they claimed to have seen because of their vantage point, etc.
Much like the videos of supposed police brutality, you only see a certain point in time but never the actions or situations that led up to that moment of violence.
One point the author does get right is that each and every police officer has the highest priority to return home safely to his or her family at the end of each tour of duty. It has nothing to do with a militaristic mindset. It has everything to do with common sense. You can’t do your job one way or the other if you’re dead. And you do no one any good, especially you’re family, if you’re dead.
When I was a field training officer, one of the first things I would tell rookies is exactly that: you first, then your partner, then the public. Unfortunately it has become an “us vs. them” attitude, but it wasn’t the police that brought it on, but rather a “rush to judgment” public that wants to use ANY use of force by the police as a rallying cry of brutality.
Much like the “don’t snitch” mentality, which puts a social stigma on those who would actually report crimes occurring, this “hyper-militarism” thought process about the police is simply a skewed view of what is really the problem: a rapidly declining society where illegal activity is not only permitted but idolized and any attempt by the police to keep it in check is disparaged.
I’m really sorry you chose to highlight this as an excellent read.
Rich