St. Louis County Police Relieved of Duty

Good day all. I have been watching the mess out in Ferguson, Missouri along with everyone else. After several nights of rioting, looting and heavy handed police responses, the governor has relieved the entire department of any police duties in that city.

This all started when a SLCP officer shot and killed Michael Brown, 18, who was unarmed at the time. There have been reports that Mr. Brown was shot in the back, or that his hands were up. Other reports say he was fighting the officer in the back of the car. At this time, I don’t know what the truth is.

Shortly after Michael Brown was killed, protests started demanding an investigation. These protests were peaceful. However, a large group of individuals decided that this would be a good time to start rioting and looting.

In response to this, the SLCP broke out all the military gear the Federal Government has been handing out to any police department that wanted it and started acting like jack-booted thugs instead of police officers trying to get things under control. At one point they “Detained” a pair of journalists, (Detained means they held them without arresting them), and fired tear gas at another crew just standing there.

In response to all this, the Governor, Jay Nixon, has relieved the SLPC of duty in Ferguson. At this time, it isn’t known who will take over, however I suspect the State Police and police from other areas will be sent in. Hopefully, this will cool things down, since the primary source for the problems, the SLCP has been ordered to stand down.

You will note that I have made no mention of anyone’s skin color here. I haven’t because it doesn’t matter to me. Yes, it does matter to others, but frankly, it shouldn’t. I don’t know anything at all about Michael Brown, but I do know that those who used his death as an opportunity to go on a looting spree should be shot. I don’t care if their skin was dark, light or polkadot.

Part of the problem with the police in Ferguson is the ongoing militarization of law enforcement in the United States. It’s out of control and police, being human, like to play with their shiny new toys. The problem is, they don’t need those “toys” or the mindset that goes along with them. We are constantly reading how a bunch of yahoos in blue put on the soldier suits and then crash through a door and rough up the people there. Then we find out they hit the wrong house. Or worse, we hear about a raid that goes really wrong and a citizen is shot or a one or more police officers are killed.

Rand Paul, (who I have a few major disagreements with on some issues), wrote a column in Time calling for the demilitarization of police in this country. I agree with this. There is no reason for the explosion of poorly trained officers being given armored vehicles and automatic weapons. Yes, there are times when those are needed, but it isn’t that common.

Police don’t need to play dress up in black uniforms looking like they’re going after the Taliban. They do need good body armor which they can simply throw on over their street uniforms as needed. They don’t need load bearing harnesses loaded down with grenades and ammunition. They just need sufficient equipment to handle the occasional situation that comes up where they do need firepower. 99 percent of the time, most of that stuff can be left at the station or locked in the trunks of the patrol cars.

The way things are going, we will have another Waco, Texas incident and this time it could result in the complete wipe out of the police. (Little known was the fact that the BATFE raid team ran out of ammunition. Only the fact the Branch Davidians weren’t looking for a fight kept the agents from being slaughtered)

It’s time for all of us to sit down and figure out exactly what we need for policing. Do we need every single police department having it’s own SWAT team, or can we get by with one or two in each state managed by the State police? (Large cities such as Los Angeles or New York City might need a dedicated, well trained team) It’s time this country move away from “Police officers” and move back to Peace Officers. I suspect we will have far fewer incidents in the future.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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