Are we headed towards a Police State?
Not yet, not compared to the rest of the world. Abuses have always happened, if for no other reason than because justice is administered by human beings. With apologies to Lewis Carroll, in 1871 when the Red Queen in "Through the Looking Glass..." said, "First the sentence and then the evidence" this is what she meant. The problem is the old one about power corrupting. 80 years before Alice met the White Rabbit, the Bill of Rights was ratified to help reign this in, so it’s hard to make the case that it is Un-American to wish to deter corrupt acts and willful abuses against individuals committed under color of authority. It’s not being “soft on crime” to oppose crimes by public officials. Any failure of political will to resist and frustrate even "small" official abuses historically leads toward broader and broader police discretion. Ask Europe. When mishandled, this abets official crime.
Better training won't overcome a mean streak in a police officer, greed in his supervisors, or in those who may have corrupted them.
When we encounter willful official abuse, we'd like to think reporting it usually leads to stopping it. The recent arrests of key city officials in Bell, California are the exception, not the norm. Let'see how motivated the new State Attorney is to continue pursuing these common crimes in other cities now that the 2010 election is past...
I submit that a Police State is just around the corner when abuses become routine, inevitable when they become accepted, and has arrived when they become policy. You’ve seen the news, where are we now? Where is north Mexico? Counting bodies. Juarez, a city of just 1.5 million recorded 2,600 killings in 2008. Think they don't wish Martial Law had been declared earlier, before the drug cartels grew so powerful? Think it can't happen here? Ask the San Diego PD.
When we encounter willful official abuse, we'd like to think reporting it usually leads to stopping it. The recent arrests of key city officials in Bell, California are the exception, not the norm. Let'see how motivated the new State Attorney is to continue pursuing these common crimes in other cities now that the 2010 election is past...
I submit that a Police State is just around the corner when abuses become routine, inevitable when they become accepted, and has arrived when they become policy. You’ve seen the news, where are we now? Where is north Mexico? Counting bodies. Juarez, a city of just 1.5 million recorded 2,600 killings in 2008. Think they don't wish Martial Law had been declared earlier, before the drug cartels grew so powerful? Think it can't happen here? Ask the San Diego PD.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Top 10 Signs you may be living in a Police State
#10 Police Administer “Instant Justice”
The list of documented unnecessary police beatings could fill a phone book. One such beating nobody can quibble about is the one we all witnessed, that of Rodney King in Los Angeles.If it later turns out ANY suspect “had it coming,” under the Constitution, it’s up to the Judiciary, not the arresting officers, to administer it.
“Failure to follow instructions” is NOT acceptable grounds to cripple a person, no matter how alone, excited or scared you may be.
#9 Police Massage Reports
A large part of the training every officer receives addresses HOW TO fill out reports, not so that they are complete, logical, clear, factual and concise, but so as to make them more useful to the Prosecutor. The key message they take from the Academy is "Give the Prosecutor ALL and ONLY what he needs to get a conviction with no “complications..” No graduate believes his reports are intended to facilitate a just outcome, that's the defendant's lawyer's job, let him get his own evidence. It is the prosecutor, not the arresting officer, who has an adversarial relationship with defense attorneys, and is no reason for peace officers to "shade" their reports.
#8 Courts Turn Blind Eye to Police Misconduct
The King beaters were acquitted. If they hadn’t been caught red-handed, they would have never been prosecuted at all.
#9 Police Massage Reports
A large part of the training every officer receives addresses HOW TO fill out reports, not so that they are complete, logical, clear, factual and concise, but so as to make them more useful to the Prosecutor. The key message they take from the Academy is "Give the Prosecutor ALL and ONLY what he needs to get a conviction with no “complications..” No graduate believes his reports are intended to facilitate a just outcome, that's the defendant's lawyer's job, let him get his own evidence. It is the prosecutor, not the arresting officer, who has an adversarial relationship with defense attorneys, and is no reason for peace officers to "shade" their reports.
#8 Courts Turn Blind Eye to Police Misconduct
The King beaters were acquitted. If they hadn’t been caught red-handed, they would have never been prosecuted at all.
On-duty cops should wear helmet cameras like race drivers, and turning one off should be a crime all on it’s own, like removing a Court-ordered ankle-bracelet. If you’re not willing to defend the actions it might record, don’t take them.
It would also serve the function of putting the lie to every FALSE charge of police brutality as well. Why subject juries to unreliable "he said, she said" evidence when the FACTS are easily obtainable with just a little readily-available, over-the-counter technology? The Police Unions and the ACLU should both be eager for this.
#7 Burden of Proof shifts to the Accused
Article 1, Section 9 states, “The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” For better or worse, the Homeland Security Act now gives authorities not just the authority, but the responsibility to ignore the entire spirit of the Bill of Rights. When a situation is so dire as to require the suspension of Civil Rights, the only lawful Constitutional mechanism is an Executive Declaration of Martial Law. Although technically only Congress can suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus, it is almost certain in the wake of 9/11 to have done so.
#7 Burden of Proof shifts to the Accused
Article 1, Section 9 states, “The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” For better or worse, the Homeland Security Act now gives authorities not just the authority, but the responsibility to ignore the entire spirit of the Bill of Rights. When a situation is so dire as to require the suspension of Civil Rights, the only lawful Constitutional mechanism is an Executive Declaration of Martial Law. Although technically only Congress can suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus, it is almost certain in the wake of 9/11 to have done so.
Washington (Whiskey Rebellion), Jackson (War of 1812), Lincoln (Civil War) and Kennedy (Civil Rights unrest in Selma, Alabama) had the courage to make it, G.W. Bush did not.
Congress has not yet had the courage to face the conflict, and badly needs to strip those types of provisions from the Act when it next comes up for renewal.
What does this matter to you and yours? Plenty. For when the government has to make no showing at all as to why someone is being detained, anybody can be detained for no reason at all. Or for nefarious reasons, like when in the pay of cartels.
#6 Evidence is “Prettied Up” by Prosecutors
When police reports and subpoenaed evidence are received by prosecutors, they have a legal duty to make it available to the other side. “Concealment, destruction or withholding of, or refusal to give material evidence which one has or knows and is legally or morally bound to reveal is normally considered ‘obstruction of justice,’ a criminal offense”.
From http://www.businessdictionary.com
But to progress in their personal careers, prosecutors need a high conviction rate. Who will prosecute the prosecutor for obstruction?
This is a structural conflict of interest, with nobody working to resolve it. If the conviction rate is the only metric by which a prosecutor is to be measured, the ruler is flawed.
#5 Population Fears Police More than Criminals
In how many neighborhoods is a victim of crime more likely to turn for help to members of the local gang than the police? Too many. The Police are certain to investigate the victim, too. If you call “G-Dog”, the worst that happens is that the crime goes unpunished. If you call the police, it may still go unpunished and you may be jailed yourself, for anything at all, from unpaid traffic tickets to immigration status review.
#4 Enforcement is Guided by Whim and Politics, not Law
When the local cop watches the well-known local make a lane change without using his turn signal, he says, “There goes Matt from the hardware store,” and just keeps on going. When a stranger does it, he says to himself, “No turn signal,” and immediately pulls him over. This is easily dismissed as just human nature, but it is also an individual deciding what laws to enforce on whom. In his mind, he is merely exercising the discretion delegated to him when, from a broader vantage point, he is making a consequential Policy Decision. Certainly it is of consequence to the individuals involved. So what? It leads to the same thing at work on larger levels. A textbook example is the creation of “Sanctuary Cities” where local governments instruct local Law Enforcement NOT to follow Federal Law. [specifically, the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act ( IIRIRA ) that requires local governments to cooperate with Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)].
And if cities can "opt-out" of this Law, why not other laws? Now we have a real problem: For if nobody knows what the rules are, or whether or not they are currently being enforced where they are at any given moment, how could anybody be expected to follow them? Nobody should be surprised when not everybody tries.
#3 Abuse Under Color of Authority Goes Unpunished
“Police misconduct isn’t just about the obvious — police beating suspects because it’s easy for them to get away with it. It’s also about things like making up false charges to justify bad arrests, refusing to testify about other officers’ crimes (code of silence), refusing to accept complaint reports from citizens, threatening suspects who would otherwise take their charges to court into pleading guilty, and coercing women into performing sexual acts. And when police do things such as beat their wives, they can count on the fact that few other police officers will arrest them for it, and that the District Attorney will be lenient in bringing charges — if any are brought at all.“
#3 Abuse Under Color of Authority Goes Unpunished
“Police misconduct isn’t just about the obvious — police beating suspects because it’s easy for them to get away with it. It’s also about things like making up false charges to justify bad arrests, refusing to testify about other officers’ crimes (code of silence), refusing to accept complaint reports from citizens, threatening suspects who would otherwise take their charges to court into pleading guilty, and coercing women into performing sexual acts. And when police do things such as beat their wives, they can count on the fact that few other police officers will arrest them for it, and that the District Attorney will be lenient in bringing charges — if any are brought at all.“
#2 More Citizens are in Prison than Graduate from College
Approximately 2.700,000 were behind bars in the United States on December 31, 2007.
Only 1,169,275 received four-year College degrees that year.
(from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/web/97415.asp).
That means in 2007 you were more than twice as likely to be in prison than to graduate from college.
#1 You are afraid to admit you are already living in a Police State.
Denial won’t help you when both the Police and Prosecutor feel not just free, but obligated to “manage” the facts. They do it all day, every day, and so they are very good at it. You, on the other hand, probably aren’t. Not only that, but they are, for the most part, “above suspicion”, while you, being suddenly “under suspicion”, have no credibility at all. To admit that you live in a police state would obligate you morally to do something about it, which just might lead to a knock on YOUR door, or worse. No wonder we stay in denial.
No I don't think we live in a police state, but if the nation isn't eternally vigilant, one is always a risk with no upside.
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