To Occupy and Extort - Our Culture of Policing

 
One of the biggest misconceptions about law enforcement today, is that many of us still think these enforcers are here to protect and serve our communities, and that just isn't true. In fact, I would argue that law enforcement is more of a threat to our freedom and public safety than it is a service to it. For over twenty years, The Supreme Court has ruled, time and time again, that police have no obligation to protect and serve the communities they occupy —and even though it's a very common and favorable belief, it is not their duty to try to keep us safe in the event of danger. It is, however, the job of law enforcement to enforce laws and investigate crimes —and with most laws being intended to generate revenue for the state, it basically reduces law enforcement to that of hired muscle for a ruling class. That may sound like an unfair criticism, but there’s plenty of information at your fingertips providing a solid foundation to that statement.  
 
Although I wouldn’t want to encourage open hostility toward the police, I do want to make it very clear that it’s not in our best interest to trust them. Law enforcement deserves our criticism, not the benefit of our doubt. If they want our respect, they ought to be expected to earn it just like everyone else. After all, it’s not as though we're given the opportunity to elect the men and women who patrol our streets and enforce our communities with a multitude of laws that many of us disagree with and wouldn’t vote for —therefore, you really shouldn't trust a law enforcement officer any more than you'd trust any other stranger you might encounter. In fact, I'd be far more leery about these strangers with badges, because they‘ve been trained to observe you with scrutiny and skepticism —and in the event of any suspicion, whether warranted or not, are also trained to maneuver around your constitutional rights in order to detain you or to make an arrest.  
 
As children, we’re taught that police officers risk their lives every day to keep our cities safe —that every day, they volunteer to face the harrowing dangers of rounding up violent criminals who pose a constant threat to our lives and personal property. It’s fascinating to me how effectively this cultural indoctrination has shielded law enforcement agencies from having to face actual consequences regarding undeniable video evidence of their ongoing corruption, extortion, racism, and violence. I also find it interesting how so many people in The United States will vehemently oppose their friends' and neighbors’ right to own legally registered firearms, but never seem to show any concern for law enforcement having an array of military-grade weapons at their disposal —such as urban tanks and fully-automatic rifles— despite being a department of civilian-class citizens. Especially when you take into account the amount of professions that have a significantly higher mortality rate than that of law enforcement officers —like garbage men, loggers, and commercial fishermen. In fact, the most common cause of death for an officer on duty is an ordinary traffic accident —not a courageous gun battle with ruthless gangsters. Believe it or not, most law enforcement officers go their entire career without ever being shot at. Most officers spend the majority of their working hours writing tickets for traffic violations, and making petty arrests for minor offenses that often result in fines and community service. In a culture that loves to paint police officers as selfless heroes with demanding jobs, I have to ask —How is writing tickets any more heroic than being an EMT or a public school teacher?
 
While their occupation may sound pretty benign at this point, where law enforcement becomes the most dangerous, and the most profitable, is the War on Drugs —which is another elaborate racketeering scheme conjured up and implemented by the state. The War on Drugs is an extremely profitable, nation-wide business venture that makes millions and millions of dollars by exploiting our country’s most vulnerable citizens —impoverished minorities. Since 1982, when Ronald Reagan escalated Richard Nixon’s "War on Drugs", we’ve witnessed the rapid militarization of law enforcement agencies, the rise of a for-profit prison industrial complex, and The United States' incarceration rate rise from nearly three-hundred thousand inmates to well over two million —with the majority of that increase being due to drug convictions, not violent crime. If you were to look at the size of our prison population, and compare it objectively to every other country in the civilized world, you might think The United States of America is home to the most dangerous population on the planet. It’s also impossible to avoid the fact that The War on Drugs is strategically carried out in poor neighborhoods, targeting young black males in their prime for prison labor. When minorities are given prison sentences of up to ten years for a first-time offense involving the possession of crack-cocaine, but a white man in the suburbs only receives probation for his possession of coke —you can rest assured, our criminal justice system is just a ruse. As Michelle Alexander points out in her book, "The New Jim Crow", one can’t help but draw the conclusion that this mass incarceration of black men is a direct response to the progress made during The Civil Rights Movement. To put it bluntly, The War on Drugs is actually a war on the socioeconomically disadvantaged, creating a racial caste system that legalizes life-long discrimination and permanent social exclusion —making it next to impossible for minorities with prior convictions to earn a half-way decent living in this country. This effectively results in perpetuating an endless cycle of repeat offenders who have little choice other than to live on the outside of the law —which, believe it or not, is the intended purpose! The American prison system is a business, and to participate in the rehabilitation of minorities would be counter intuitive to turning a profit.  
 
In closing, I will say again that law enforcement is not here to protect our communities, it's here to police them. Law enforcement is here to protect a concentration of wealth and power from anyone who might violate whatever laws our established order decides upon. Contrary to national sentiment, its primary purpose is to enforce a plutocratic rule that exploits the public in order to generate revenue for the state. Now, I’m certain we can all come to an agreement that many rules and regulations are completely valid and necessary —but we need to take a long, objective look at our culture of policing and the dominant role it’s always played in an ongoing class war. As much as it might pain you to read this, there is no such thing as a “good cop” —it’s a farce. The fact is, American police departments began as slave patrols who assisted wealthy land owners in recovering and punishing their slaves —and that ultimately hasn’t changed. Our culture of policing has always been a for-profit institution steeped in racism, brutality, and oppression. What kind of depraved human being would want to wear that violent history as a badge of honor? What kind of person would consider that heroic? Having militarized law enforcement is an illegitimate necessity manufactured by an abusive power structure to avoid being overthrown by its own population. At the end of the day, it’s still a system of oppression that thrives on the exploitation of poverty in a society that has plenty to go around. Should a country with the largest prison population in the history of mankind still call itself The Leader of The Free World? Can it still call itself The Home of The Brave, when its masses think it’s best to keep their heads down and their mouths shut?