With the proliferation of portable handheld and dashboard video cameras, and with the ability to upload and share videos on the web, people can see for themselves what police brutality really looks and feels like, and tension between police and American citizens is visible. A simple Google or YouTube search quickly reveals hundreds of unique cases of cops brutalizing people, often with insane cruelty and hubris, and the list of abuses grows daily.
Many of the most shocking incidents are against women, children, the elderly, the handicapped or the mentally ill. In addition to excessive violence, police are also abusing their powers and illegally stealing money and property from everyday people, while admittedly using traffic and drug laws as revenue generating schemes for government coiffeurs. Most shockingly, though, the police are up-arming themselves with military weapons and equipment, seemingly preparing themselves for something apocalyptic, and are increasingly assuming confrontational and threatening postures when dealing with the public.
Is police brutality and misconduct actually getting worse, or are portable video recorders allowing us to just now see what’s been happening all along? More importantly, is this situation going to improve any time soon?
Our society needs police, good police, working on behalf of and in cooperation and trust with their communities to solve crimes and face legitimate criminals, but, unfortunately, there are many reasons to expect this trend to get worse before it gets better, and here are 5 of them.
1. Rise of the Security State, Decline of Law and Order
Much of this is the natural result of the collapse of moral leadership at the highest levels of a government that now condones torture and has for decades engaged in ongoing war, geo-political manipulations, interventions and foreign occupations. The breakdown of law and order at the top is being mirrored in every level of society.
2. The Military Industrial Economy is on Steroids
Having gone unabated and unchallenged since these warnings, what we see happening now in law enforcement is the inevitable result of creating financial opportunities in violence, surveillance and dehumanization.
3. The Fox is The Henhouse and Silence is the Code
If a case of obvious brutality does make it to court, there are already alarming precedents that give the police extreme forgiveness in their use of physical compliance techniques. An example being the recent trial and acquittal of the Fullerton, CA police officers who savagely beat and murdered a homeless and mentally ill man, Kelly Thomas, which was caught on video by security cameras. The horrifying incident is available for anyone to watch, but, a jury felt that the officers had a right to use this level of force while taking him into custody, setting an ugly precedent for future encounters like this.
4. This is What Social Engineering & Mind Control Does to Societies
Together with non-stop mainstream news coverage of crime, fatal accidents, war, terrorism and other threats, homeland security theater and public military drills, the shock doctrine of government control through overwhelmingly visible violence that is publicized and parroted by mainstream media is the most effective means of generating mass fear and psychological obedience.
5. Not Enough People Know Their Rights and Have the Courage to Exercise Them… Yet
What’s worse is that in many cases, law enforcement officers don’t even know the laws themselves. If both the population and the police are ignorant of the law, then we can expect, in the future, more cops to take advantage of this, and more citizens to passively tolerate this.
Conclusion
The Gold Standard for Good Policing
“The Peelian Principles”These nine basic principles are often referred to as “The Peelian Principles.” Upon close examination of each of the Peelian principles, not only are direct connections to policing in today’s world apparent, but often the nine principles are cited as the basic foundation for current law enforcement organizations and community policing throughout the world.Many law enforcement agencies currently quote the Peelian Principles on their community websites as their own principles.
Sir Robert Peel 1788 – 1850
“The Founder of Modern Policing”
Peelian Principle 1 – “The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.”
Peelian Principle 2 – “The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.”
Peelian Principle 3 – “Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.”
Peelian Principle 4 – “The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.”
Peelian Principle 5 – “Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to the public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.”
Peelian Principle 6 – “Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.”
Peelian Principle 7 – “Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.”
Peelian Principle 8 – “Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.”Peelian Principle 9 – “The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.”
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