How did America’s police become a military force on the streets?

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/how_did_americas_police_become_a_military_force_on_the_streets/

by jakewalker • 13 years ago

14 10 13 years ago

jakewalker• 13 years ago

Excerpt from a book by Radley Balko, The Rise of the Warrior Cop (link: http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Warrior-Cop-Militarization-Americ...)

waps• 13 years ago

I've never understood that about America. You guys have weak doors. In Western Europe you have brick houses, heavy double glazing, and the outer doors are solid wood or stretched metal, or one of the very heavy plastics reinforced with metal bars. The walls, nearly all of them, are concrete or brick. Security doors are reinforced concrete. Lately there has been a big push (by the police) to replace traditional locks with security locks and put locks and shutters on the windows, security doors, ... complete with tax breaks and a personal advisor (police would come down and do a security survey of your house if you wanted them to. They'd index all the entrances and exits, point out where there would be no visibility, tell you to have at least one locked barrier inside the house, ... Then give you the report, and I don't think they even kept a copy. Not that it would help them that much to get in). Windows get double tax breaks : better security and better isolation.

The big problem they're trying to protect against is power-tool equipped robbery gangs coming in from outside of the country, but within the EU.

Frankly, given the response to self-defense these days (intrusion = 1 year probation, hurting an intruder goes from 6 months to 10 years, but guaranteed not to be fully probation), you're pretty much forced to do things this way, plus it's a lot safer.

If the police wanted to kick down my door (previous owner installed a security door) ... they'd have to bring a tank, or heavy power tools, and it would take them 20-30 minutes to get in. SWAT teams exist of course, and they regularly get into that situation. Person locks himself in with drugs, and they need the entire afternoon to get past the door of the house.

Then you go visit America, and you see American houses. I'm not exactly fit anymore, but I'm pretty sure I could kick down one of those doors. The windows do not resist a light tap (average West European windows will easily resist a football getting kicked into them, good ones will resist a hammer, and when they do shatter, they shatter like plastic does, which still doesn't give you access without 10 minutes of cleanup)

Always wondered why that is. Is it just cheaper ?

mikestew3• 13 years ago

Cheaper, and in most cases it's good enough. I often read British motorcycle magazines, and I'm shocked at the anti-theft tips in the mags. Sure, you've got your usual tips on locking it when you're out. No biggie, I use a disc lock a lot of times myself, and wouldn't leave a bike on the streets of NYC without some serious locking equipment. But the difference really set in when one sportbike mag had a list of preferred baby monitors to use for the garage. That's for after the thief has broken into your garage (could happen in the U. S.), and is now working on extracting the bike from the anchor that holds the bike to the floor (I don't think they even sell these in the U. S.) while you're in the house (in which case a thief stands a non-zero chance of being shot in the U. S). It does make me wonder what the hell is going on over there in Britain.

I won't even try to explain what the difference is, but it has never even occurred to me to wonder if my windows can resist a hammer (I doubt they could, but have no idea). Granted, I live in a boring suburban town (see comment elsewhere: Redmond, WA). And when the Redmond SWAT team brings their APC and wants in, it won't take them long. And the bastards will probably shoot the two pit bulls before they realize they have the wrong house.

cpursley• 13 years ago

Chapter 12:

https://mises.org/rothbard/newlibertywhole.asp#contents

mikestew3• 13 years ago

I wondered about this a few years ago when my bus stop in Redmond, WA was moved temporarily and I had to walk by the police station to get to the bus. In the parking lot sat an armored personnel carrier. What in the hell does Redmond, a town of 50K at the time and about as low on crime as you're going to get, need with an APC? And what excuses does the PD find to use it? This in a town where one patrol cop, when interviewed during a ride-along by the local paper, stated that patrol is pretty boring in Redmond.

At first I thought that they got it cheap or free, but it still costs money. Personnel have to be trained and regularly drilled, and maintenance isn't free. When money is being spent, it's going to get used. And I can't help but think of Barney Fife when I think of quiet little Redmond's PD running around in an APC.

Wistar3• 13 years ago

Hah! I too, have seen that V150 APC driving around Redmond and wondered why they have such a thing. I talked to an acquaintence, an engineer for the city of Redmond, and he told me that the tires are so fragile on hard surfaces that the little buttons they use in lane dividers can shred the tires, each of which is several thousand dollars and each of which have had to be replaced a few times.

mikestew3• 13 years ago

A couple grand to put tires on the department's penisMobile, huh? sigh I think it's time to run for Redmond city council again. The question is: has any candidate for any city council ever won a seat after saying he'll cut the police department's budget? :-) Which might explain how police departments arrived at their current state to begin with.

Wistar3• 13 years ago

Oops! I stand corrected. I just asked my city engineer acquaintance about the APC and I have it backwards. The APC destroyed the road buttons by crushing them just by driving over them especially when the vehicle turns. Apparently this button destruction kept happening repeatedly and was expensive to fix. He did say that the police and fire departments in Redmond have absolutely the best of everything and that their budgets are incredible.

cafard• 13 years ago

It is odd that a law school professor should take that view of the constitution; after all, it primarily regulated the duties and powers of the federal government and its relations to the states. I think that a lot of things are wrong with the way that the US does policing. But to pretend that the constitution gives a detailed description of the principles of right government is absurd, and done by one who teaches law implies either willful ignorance or sophistry.

How did America’s police become a military force on the streets?

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