The WaPo’s brilliant new hire (at least for the “opinion” pages, though he outshines their lapdog reporters) Radley Balko marshalls the statistics that show the drug war really is a war on the poor and minorities and the excuse for the militarization and corruption of police agencies and politics in general.
Odd that the war didn’t even rate a mention in Ditherton’s SOTU. And him a minority at that. Too realistic, I suppose.
Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, The Drug War, War Without End
Tagged End the Drug War, Radley Balko
Huffpo journalist Radley Balko, author of the new book The Warrior Cop, explains:
“Today, police departments—or some of their key enforcement operations—appear to be on a war footing. Many [including the Austin police] dress in commando black, instead of the traditional blue. They own military-grade weapons, armored personnel carriers, helicopters and Humvees. Their training is military. Their approach is military. They are in a war against crime and violence and terror that they argue never ends.”
And we citizens increasingly are afraid of them. With very good reason.
Read all about our new police state here.
UPDATE: The Barney Fifes have taken over law enforcement and have a lot less respect than Sheriff Andy Taylor did.
Comments Off on Whatever happened to Officer Friendly?
Posted in Obamalot, Texana, The War
Tagged how officer friendly became robocop, Radley Balko, rise of the warrior cop
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 