I'm afraid that if budgets continue to be constrained, the police will seek other means of revenues. Like governments since the time of Athens, they will eventually resort to coercion and bullying tactics to get their money. Eventually, something will give because people and citizens won't take that for too long. It's a sad, long fact of history.
Life is funny that way. They will behave no differently than mobster shaking down weak and innocent people.
In my town, the cops are everywhere pinching people for all sorts of things. It's what small town cops do since crime is almost non-existent. They have to do something.
So they install themselves on side streets looking for "bunny-hoppers" at Stop signs or set up speed traps or look for people with hand held devices as they drive.
And they get creative too. One guy, I remember, was slouched in an unmarked van looking more like a Mohawk warrior defending the Oka reserve than a police officer. It really left me with a chuckle but an unnerving feeling. To what lengths to they have to go?
Part of the reason is for "pubic safety" but I'm getting the feeling it has little or nothing to do with that. I think he odd "set-up" is fine and sufficient to send social safety cues to the public. But when you're out there everyday, you lend yourself to some paranoia.
Alas, the rise of the police state (in the USA in particular) is slowly taking root. From what I hear, in France the police force is in a state of anarchy. Here in Montreal, there has been debate about the "quota" (or as New York police chief Ray Kelley preposterously and coyly calls them "goals") mystery to which the police chief denies. He doesn't sound convincing.
If we demand "regulations" on corporations for unethical practices, why shouldn't we ask the same of our public institutions? Maybe we need to look at this a little harder and if we see abuses, then "quotas" should be eliminated. You'll never convince me that blowing a stop or parking infractions pose a major public safety hazard.
The police are not a bank. They shouldn't be "upselling" because when you think of it to its logical end you will end more and more and more up with stories like this one.
Ironically, the rise of police aggression coincides with the hero-worshipping of law enforcement evident since 9/11.
I think it's gone a little beyond "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about" or "if you follow the law they will leave you alone."
Too often, cases of people observing each are targeted everyday in America now. I don't think Canada is far behind.
And that's disturbing.
If trends keep up, all police forces will attract are the sort of people with a natural talent for bullying. The sort of thug you want to keep out of "law & order." Like we see with the low-caliber individual attracted to politics, the same will happen to police forces everywhere.
"If trends keep up, all police forces will attract are the sort of people with a natural talent for bullying. The sort of thug you want to keep out of "law & order." Like we see with the low-caliber individual attracted to politics, the same will happen to police forces everywhere."
ReplyDeleteThey already do. While I was in the US Navy (oh so many years ago), I had the "pleasure" of being assigned Shore Patrol duty. It was surprisingly easy work... simply stroll around downtown Long Beach, California, with a billy club and a attitude... and a partner. Fortunately for skinny me, that partner (affectionately called "Pineapple") was a solid, no nonsense, musclebound brute who used me as "bait" from time to time. I learned over those two months that a law enforcement career was not something I really wanted. It brought out the "hard ass" in me, the bully. Most cops are good people but they all develop attitudes at some point and many come into the job with one already in full bloom.