POLICE ABUSE AND RACE-BAITING: THE PERFECT STORM
By Chuck Baldwin
October 6, 2016
NewsWithViews.com
Faithful readers of this column know that I am not timid about reporting on the exponential increase of police abuse currently taking place in our country. This tragic phenomenon is a clear and present danger to the overall health and wellbeing of our society. And it is not a fabrication of “leftists.” The abuse of power by many police officers is very real. And as I have attempted to point out previously, the reason for this sad state of affairs is largely due to the recruitment and training of police officers today.
More and more frequently, the ranks of civilian law enforcement are being filled with former military personnel. This is not necessarily wrong in and of itself, but the purpose of law enforcement is entirely different from that of the military. Policemen are not soldiers. And American citizens are not enemy combatants.
For example, back in 2012, Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), an office of the Department of Justice, offered 220 U.S. cities $114.6 million in incentive grants to hire post-9/11 veterans to fill 800 law enforcement positions.
But soldiers cannot bring their military training into police work without inflicting horrific consequences upon society. And this does not even take into account how many veterans who suffer from PTSD will be filling the ranks of law enforcement. Add the stress of police work to the trauma of war and the results could be devastating on America’s streets where the line between American citizens and enemy soldiers could easily be blurred in the minds of these warriors-turned-cops.
Plus, more and more often, police officers are being trained by military personnel (including foreign military personnel), and the equipment provided to law enforcement is increasingly military in nature. Look at the average police officer today: his equipment, dress, and mannerisms more resemble a special ops military soldier than a peace officer. And it is the military training of police officers that is precipitating the avalanche of unnecessary and unjust police shootings of American citizens.
Previously, I reported on the police shooting and killing of an unarmed man in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Fortunately, the district attorney in Tulsa rightfully charged the officer with manslaughter in the first degree. Within days, police released video footage of a similar incident that happened in Marksville, Louisiana. This time, the victim included a little boy.
Six-year-old Jeremy Mardis (an autistic child) was shot and killed with five bullets to his head and chest by two police officers in Marksville, and his father was seriously wounded. The father was unarmed, yet the two officers fired a total of 18 rounds into his vehicle. The little boy was killed instantly, and the father was seriously wounded. There were no warrants out for the father.
The Rest…HERE
