MILITARIZATION OF POLICE AND THE USE OF DEADLY FORCE

I think there is ample evidence of the Police getting out of hand.  Especially in light of huge increase in the number of laws, many times contradictory, which are written at all levels of government and the extreme tactics which are being employed to enforce these laws.

Herewith is an article from the Washington Examiner which describes the militarization of our police forces: 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/23/police-militarizing-without-any-checks-power-exper/?page=all#pagebreak

How many of you live in small communities which have large and extremely fortified police forces?  How many of you even know how fortified your police force actually is?  Have we really reached the tipping point where the idea of justice is a police force which willingly uses force to strip us of our constitutional rights in an attempt to enforce the law?

How many of you remember the response to the Boston Marathon bombing when the police force cordoned off entire blocks of the city and forced the residents out of their homes as they searched their homes without a warrant?  Does anyone think that show of force was justified or constitutional?  Can you imagine what would occur if a home owner refused to willingly leave and allow police complete access to  their PRIVATE residence?  At the least they would be removed by force and charged criminally.  If they were the least resistant, they would be physically assaulted or worse by the officers who are supposed to "Protect and Serve".

Why do we need an NSA gathering spying on every citizen of the US?  why do we need the CIA, FBI, DIA, TSA, Homeland Security on the national level and State, city, local and sherriff departments on the state level?  all in the name of protecting us when in fact, they do not protect, but instead are in many cases a part of the problem?  Why do we need so many distinct forces, all becoming extremely militarized to protect our streets when they are never available when a crime occurs?

What ever happened to the concept of a police force which is there to "protect and serve" the community at large?  Does this protection extend to the killing of citizens without a trial by jury?  Is it right for the police force to in essence become the supreme law of the land wherein they become judge, jury and executioner with impunity?

Most people have heard about the shooting of unarmed Michael Brown by a white policeman in ferguson Missouri and the riots which occurred in response.  How many of you know about the shooting of an unarmed white young man in Utah by a black policeman a week earlier?  Not many, I'll wager and there was certainly no reaction by the president, US Attorney general and the race baiting Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to this incident.  Now assume that the evidence of the Black Utah cop shooting the unarmed white kid proves to be indictable while the White Fergusons cop shooting the young black man is found to have been in self defense and thereby not indictable.  I'm willing to wager that then you will see Jesse, Sharpton, Holder and need I say Obama leading the riots.

But I digress.  Is either incident right or warranted?  Is the use of extreme, ie... deadly force by police because a young man refuses to immediately honor the orders of a police officer acceptable in our country?  

Is it right that in America, where the violent crime rate has declined for the past 5 years we have seen a 3 fold increase in the average number of killings by police during this same period?  Prior to 2006, FBI statistics show the incidents of lethal force to number under ten a year nationwide.  From 2006 to 2009, they increased to an average of 50 per year.  From 2010 to the current they have averaged over 100 per year. This during a time when the incident of violent crime has been decreasing.

Certainly there is reason for the police to use deadly force in the most extreme cases, but why does it seem that the use of extreme force is occurring with more frequency at a time when the incidence of violent crime is decreasing?  Is this a result of the militarization of our police force?  Is it a result of attempts to enforce the plethora of laws which are overburdening our society?  Is it a case of the police becoming too arrogant? Or is it as simple as the police encountering violent criminals more often than in past years?

We will probably n ever be able to answer these questions to any degree of certainty, but we must look at what is happening in our country and how this country based on the ideals of self governance and personal responsibility has become a country wherein almost anything one does on a daily basis can be construed as being illegal in some manner, shape of form and might be met with lethal force for not complying immediately to one of the myriad "officials"ndemands.

Just something to think about.

Marathon Bombing, Suspect #2

After the capture of Suspect #2 in the Boston Marathon bombing incident, many people were appalled that the suspect, an American citizen, was given his Miranda rights.  Of course we read him his rights.  We are a nation of laws and believe in the rule of law.  If we lose sight of this, we are no better than those who intend to harm us.  A couple of "radicalized Islamists", the surviving participant an American citizen, practiced their religious belief here in America and committed an atrocity upon innocent Americans. Why? Because they don't agree with our Politics. I don't agree with our politics either, but you sure as hell don't see me or any other Christians, Jews, Hindus or LDS members acting out this way in the name of their chosen religion do you? 

Here is the issue for me,   I believe the American citizen committing this act of violence still has rights and one of them is to have miranda invoked. I believe in the rule of law and I believe in the freedoms we (used to) have in America.  I believe we have the right to speak up in opposition but not act out in a violent manner.

I'm against the US government policy of Nation Building (ie..intruding). I am against the government sending Billions of dollars in "aid" every year to middle eastern and other countries which is wasted, has little oversight and never reaches those intended. I am opposed to our government selling arms across the globe to whatever faction happens to be the flavor of the month only to find out that the winds have changed a year later and we have supplied people who wage Jihad against us. I am adamantly opposed to the US invasion of ANY sovereign nation (ie...Iraq and soon Syria). I advocate that we cut back our military presence around the world and both the size and footprint of our standing armies to the absolute minimum. We do not need to and should not be policemen to the world. And I am completely opposed to the concept of using drones to kill anyone the president deems appropriate.

But that being said, we, not Iran, Iraq or any other middle eastern country, were attacked here in America by muslim fundamentalists who teach and preach jihad, murder of infidels and the use of Sharia Law in America. I do not accept this as a reasonable religious tenet and I will continue to speak out against it. For any muslim supporters, if this offends your sense of morality, well, you have the right to state your case, but understand, I have not found any arguments the least bit persuasive because the arguments forgo the single major difference between Christians and Islamists, Christians are not teaching children from an early age to HATE and execute those who disagree with them. Would that it were different and it's great that only a small percentage of the Islamic world advocates Jihad, but that percentage has placed a target on the backs of Americans TODAY, not 50, 100, 200 or 500 years ago, they are plotting against us TODAY and it only takes a small percentage to end up killing you or me or other Americans who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Better to be prepared than dead as far as I'm concerned.