Years ago, I was summarily excluded from corporate-sponsored encounters with the public after I responded to a question from one in a group of schoolchildren about who/what in society we should all be most concerned about with two words: “The police.”
Because, I added for the shocked young people, who were no doubt raised to believe that police officers were their friends, that we know the police don’t always tell the truth but judges and juries nevertheless usually take their word as Gospel.
Well, things are more complicated nowadays, thanks to some recent police killings murders (at least one a year here in Austin, for instance), the ubiquity of SWAT teams in full military regalia including automatic rifles sent out to confront ordinary people, rather than hardened criminals, and incredible disclosures such as this Houston PD statement about an officer’s running down a pedestrian that Houston police are not required to use lights or sirens when speeding. (One more reason to stay out of Houston.)
Vox Day, the blogger-author of the timely The Return of the Great Depression, who calls police “the badge gang,” recently summed it up this way:
“If the police do not wish to be condemned and held in contempt by the American public, they had better reject militarization, respect the Constitution, and deal justly with the criminals among them. If they cannot or will not do those three things, they will discover that without the tacit cooperation of the American public, they possess far less power and authority than they appear to presently believe.”
I think that’s exactly right, and they can start by staying away from people who photograph them at work with cell-phone cameras instead of getting all huffy about it and demanding they stop or they’ll be arrested. Or do they think that the First Amendment only applies to them and their cronies?
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
The cops do whatever they please, and we have enabled them. I have been turning around a (another) post on this, because a letter to the paper would not be printed, but it’s not ripe, yet.
If you know what I mean.
I think a growing number of ordinary folks are becoming afraid of the police and prefer to stay as far away from them as possible.
I always say ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir’ to them, and I don’t think confronting them individually is wise, but I do think they can sense the contempt that I and others have for them.
I guess libertarians have an answer for that. To start with – sufficiently armed citizens, then a prolonged period of vigilante justice, followed by a unanimous decision to organize a police force…. etc.
I don’t think confrontation is smart. They have plenty of weapons and the law is on their side. Except in certain situations (a Brit or Detroit shopkeeper or homeowner protecting his property from rioters the cops refuse to confront), it would be best to deal with the badge gang passively.
They’ll get the message (I think they already are getting it), and bloggers will help them figure it out (since the traditional media mainly sucks up to them), and since I don’t think most of them are corrupt, they’ll eventually reform themselves. Disbanding the SWAT teams may take longer. A lot of them are ex-military and they like playing soldier.
If citizens did confront them en masse, it would have to be a revolution that overthrows the government as well, since they have its backing.
When a city like Lake Jackson, 1/3 of a small town (+ Clute & Freeport), has a SWAT team and buys a damn APC, it indicates that even our local governments are afraid of their own citizens.
And if they are, that is the best evidence that we should be afraid of THEM.
jd
You may be right, jd. I have thought, for a while now, not that they are afraid of us, but that they are more interested in protecting themselves than in doing their job of protecting us.
Notice how in all the recent mass murder/terrorist attacks (with the exception of the Fort Hood shootings) the cops always seem to arrive late and do not confront the shooter while the shooting’s going on. They may be concerned with liability, or the safety of themselves and others, but the upshot is all they do is clean up the mess when it’s over. They don’t stop it.
As for Lake Jackson and other small towns with SWAT teams, buying this stuff is enabled by federal grants. The money’s there, the “boys” want new toys and the town takes advantage of it. It is ridiculous, though.