The American Police State

Interesting exercise: Read this post about "rising communities", which, as far as I can see, is about getting people to buy into being part of the American police state.

Compare and contrast with this series of three four posts (one, two, three, four) about our American police state. (H/T)

I fully support the personal possession of firearms.[1] But we are not going to do away with our police state by shooting people.[2]

The only way that the American police state will start withering is if we, the American people, start taking political action. We have to start electing politicians who are behind the idea of reducing the footprint of our police state and we have to start throwing out those politicians in favor of having a police state.

I have some modest proposals:

First, reduce the funding for (or defund entirely) local SWAT teams. They are being overused when they are, as is the practice nowadays, used to serve routine arrest warrants for nonviolent offenses. This era of strapped local budgets offers the perfect opportunity to whittle away at the overuse of SWAT teams.

Second, remember this principle: The police forces are civilian police. They are not military forces. Keep that in mind.

Third, ban the transfer of military technology and equipment to civilian police forces.

Fourth, remove all weapons exemptions from the police. They would be permitted to carry the same types of weapons as everyone else. If a citizen cannot go to a gun shop and purchase a weapon or magazine, then the cops don't get them.[3] So if the city of Cincinnati wants to only let civilians have revolvers, then the cops better practice with those S&W Model 65s. No tasers for us, no tasers for you.

Fifth, remove the judge-made doctrine of "qualified immunity". Everyone else has to comport themselves with the law. Only public officials have this exemption where, if there is any haziness to the law, they get a free pass for their actions.[4]

Sixth, require a separate finding of fact for any search warrant that is executed outside the hours of 9AM to 7PM, with a separate judicial signoff for such searches. Raids in the middle of the night are the hallmark of a police state. Breaking down someone's door at six in the morning is plain fucking evil. Does anyone not get that?

Will any of this happen? Probably not. With few exceptions, the police have pretty much resorted to using excessive force and illegal searches against minorities, so a lot of people don't care. As Badtux has repeatedly pointed out, there are plenty of Americans who hold to the view that it is just peachy if the cops bust the heads of only those people.[5] The police brass (and their political supporters) will bleat that they need the ability to violate our rights, tote military weapons and act like KGB goons in order to keep us safe and enough people believe them.[6]

So I don't think that anything is going to change soon.
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[1] Hell, I'm in favor of repealing the `34 NFA. I'd love for suppressors to not only be legal, but for their use to be seen as courteous towards the neighbors.
[2] If there were a modern-day Shays' Rebellion, the Air Force would have Global Hawk and Predator drones overhead in very short order and those Predators would be raining down Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs upon the rebels.
[3] Can someone point to a recent situation where the police had to have MP-5s or M-4s?
[4] The rest of us get to slug it out in court. If what you didn't wasn't clearly wrong under then then-state of the law, you can still be made to pay damages if a judge and/or jury thinks that you should have known better anyway.
[5] "Those people" being those groups traditionally out of favor with the "good folks": Niggers, spics, pinko commie faggots and, more recently, ragheads. In the past: Wops and kikes.
[6] Mostly fearful Republicans. You need only refer to every other public statement by Rep. Peter King (R-IRA Provos) to see that in action.