What's Up With the Police? by Steven LaTulippe

Steven LaTulippe is a physician currently practicing in Ohio. He was an officer in the United States Air Force for 13 years. He writes:

Traditionally, police work in America has been a local and state affair. The conventional model was that of the local, blue-collar guy who spent much of his time walking the beat and interacting with the public. He rarely got into armed confrontations with civilians, and when he did, it was to stop unambiguously criminal activity...

Unfortunately, as our nation has drifted towards a more aggressive, centralized form of government, the character of policing has changed.

First, law enforcement was relentlessly federalized during the course of the hideous 20th Century. Back when our society actually followed the constitution, the only armed federal law enforcement agents were those of the secret service...

All of this changed when the government began to discard the constitution’s limitations and moved to consolidate power in Washington...

At first, many Americans expressed dismay that the federal government was treading onto soil that had traditionally been forbidden to it. The consolidation of a federal police force had generally been considered "un-American" and a precursor to "Caesarism." ... Many were concerned that this development heralded the beginning of the end of our republic.

Once the camel’s nose was under the tent, the power and scope of federal law enforcement relentlessly expanded, culminating in the siege at Waco and the unprecedented growth of federal power accompanying the passage of The Patriot Act...

Now that our government has nearly completed the transformation into empire, the aggressive nature of law enforcement is working its way through the system. The rights of our citizenry are being eroded and the powers of the state are being inexorably expanded...

The use of the military for civilian law enforcement is an overt sign of degeneration into despotism. This trend accelerated after 9/11 and the Katrina disaster...

[In Miami] police are planning "in-your-face" shows of force in public places... As an example, uniformed and plainclothes officers might surround a bank building unannounced, contact the manager about ways to be vigilant against terrorists and hand out leaflets in three languages to customers and people passing by...

Traditional law enforcement is a noble calling and plays a vital role in protecting individual rights. Violent criminals exist in all societies and we should be thankful that there are men and women willing to join the police force and guard against them. But statism is contaminating American law enforcement and causing it to approach the precipice of authoritarianism.

"Protect and serve" is being mutated into "shock and awe."

This is, unfortunately, yet another pothole on our tragic road to empire.

What's Up With the Police? by Steven LaTulippe