Many people have noticed that several of the local police officers, particularly the younger ones are more gruff, rude and even abusive as compared to the past. Many veteran officers attribute the shift towards DHS' training of local police which focuses on teaching the police that the public is their enemy as opposed to the traditional view that teaches that the local population and the police are partners in keeping the community safe.

Whatever happened to the friendly neighborhood cop who walked a beat, was well-known and respected by the local residents and was seen as the protector of the neighborhood? Far too often, that cop has been replaced by thugs wearing camouflage, bank robber type black ski masks who are armed with automatic weapons and sometimes even break down the doors of people who are innocent.

A Long-Term Trend Towards the Militarization of the Local Police

Americans have long maintained that a man's home is his castle and that he has the right to stand his ground in defending his property from dangerous interlopers.

Unfortunately, the right to defend one's own home may be disappearing. America has become SWAT team happy. America has seen a disturbing trend towards militarization of its local civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and very disturbing rise in the use of paramilitary police units being used for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home. However, anyone can be SWAT-teamed, even those who default on their student loans have been SWAT-teamed.

Since 9/11, and the subsequent militarization of the police by the Department of Homeland Security, about 5,000 Americans have been killed by US police officers. The civilian death rate is nearly equal to the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq. In fact, you are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist.

Salt Lake City: The Federalization of Our Police

Under the creation of the Unified Police Department (UPD) in Salt Lake City, Utah local jurisdictions and municipalities which were previously controlled by the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, was reallocated to UPD. The UPD is a regional police force. They answer to no mayor, no city council and no county commissioners. The UPD is Salt Lake City's new police department and serves as the model for the program which is being implemented in other police departments across the nation. This centralized Gestapo type of law enforcement does not belong anywhere in America.

It is clear that the police departments are being trained as the local enforcers of the coming martial law and they are also being trained to use horrific brutality.

While the majority of police officers are good men, reports like raiding the wrong house and subsequently killing the individuals inside are becoming more common place, and the officers that are involved rarely face any sort of consequences.

John Adams 61, was shot and killed by police in a drug raid on the wrong house. His wife Loraine, 70, was also handcuffed and forced to the ground. Not one of the officers has lost their job. In fact, some have even been promoted since the event.

Jose Guerena was shot and killed by several members of the Pima County Sheriff's Office on a drug raid that produced no evidence of drug use or that of selling drugs. He was an Iraq veteran and the Pima Sheriffs officers let him bleed to death over the course of an hour after being shot over 60 times. The deputies denied Guerena medical attention. Not one of the officers has lost their job.

The Guerena and Adams cases are being played out all across the country. This is unacceptable in a supposed free society. However, what we are witnessing is the militarization of police for what looks like brutal martial law training. Why else would we see such senseless acts of violence being committed by police against American citizens all across the country?

The Data Says It Is Time for the Public to Act

The CATO Institute's National Police Misconduct Reporting Project, in 2010 there were 4,861 reports of police misconduct involving 6,613 sworn officers and 6,826 alleged victims.

The question of police discipline is one of the fox watching the hen house. Far too often the police are left to discipline themselves. Many communities who are dissatisfied with police departments' internal discipline procedures have created volunteer police watch groups to prevent the police from hiding behind the discipline offered by colleagues as they hide behind the "thin blue line", which serves to protect fellow officers accused of wrongdoing.

Coupled with the paramilitary design of the police bureaucracy itself, the police give in to what is already a serious problem in the ranks: the belief that the increasing use of power against a citizen is always justified no matter the violation. The police don't understand that in many instances they are the cause of the escalation and bear more responsibility during an adverse outcome. The Cato Institute maintains a botched raid map at this link.

The Solution Is to Film Cops in the Performance of Their Duties

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Police should be filmed in the performance of their duty so there is no question as to whether the police are applying excessive force and are following the Constitution.

We can no longer trust cops to operate on their own authority. They must wear cameras.

In Minneapolis, the city government voted to spend $25,000 to have cops wear cameras in the performance of their duties. City Council member, Betsy Hodges, said that the city will ultimately save money from lessening the number of law suits.

Film Cops and Get Life In Prison

Unfortunately, many police are not warm to the idea of being filmed in the performance of their duties. However, it is perfectly legal to film cops so long as they are not interfered with, as nobody in public has an expectation of privacy. Yet, the law has not stopped some cops from abusing their authority and arresting people for harmlessly filming officers in the performance of their duty.

Michael Allison, recorded police officers on duty in his front yard inspecting vehicles he was repairing. The police cited Allison for failing to properly register his vehicles, and so he requested an ordinance review hearing. Allison now faces five felony counts, with each count carrying a penalty for 15 years in prison. For videotaping police and a court proceeding, Allison faces an unbelievable total of 75 years, or the rest of his life in prison under Illinois new eavesdropping statutes.

Conclusion

Clearly, the tide of increasing and deadly police brutality must be stemmed in America. The solutions that should be invoked are (1) invoke the 10th Amendment and forbid DHS to train local law enforcement; (2) repeal the legislation which permits the military and DHS to donate military hardware to local police departments, it is not needed and promotes a paramilitary attitude towards police work; (3) establish a citizen review board which will have authority over all complaints regarding police brutality. The police can longer be allowed to judge their own; and, (4) require all on-duty police to wear cameras.

These simple actions could go a long way towards re-establishing civilian control over too many departments which are clearly out of control and are serving to endanger the public as opposed to serving the public.

This is true, especially if your talking about the criminal outfit known as the Pima County Regional Swat Team.

happening everywhere now...

Thanks to the Patriot Act, FISA court and greedy legislators corporatizing/militarizing America, I'm afraid there's not much to look forward to but tyranny, the abuse of power and a complete loss of individual/property rights anymore.

It's sad because it is in everyones face, but they fail to see or care......I'm not sure which is more the problem.

Amerika... the land of the fee and the home of the slave

That is because people don't want to face it, its much easier to tune into America's Voice than actually get involved with what our employees are doing.

And they wonder why people are upset with our present leadership......

racists, prejudice, and bigots....

we have to like black presidents....no matter what

Its past present and future leadership the world is heading for a global police state. Massive surveillance of every aspect of our lives is going on right now. We face a future of drones, rubber bullets acoustic crowd control weapons and a downward economic spiral while the financial elite control the media and your perception of reality. There is no turning back this tide unless good people take a stand.

Its allot easier to ignore it go watch the football game and stick your head in the sand and pretend you live in a country that defends "freedom".

thats why DHS is controlling the the local police forces now, barry knows this and doesn't want the people to win... every one of those pinheads in office right now is not in there for us or the country, they are only in office to make themselves rich...

if barry and his goons cared about the people, he would not be gearing up for subversion right now, and passing all these laws for the people to find out whats really going on in congress...

time for Guncontrol on the Government!

I am no fan of those deaths caused unnecessarily by anyone, ESPECIALLY POLICE (who I feel should be trained better as it is their job)


BUT

in addressing the op title, I think if we had as many terrorists in the US as we did cops,,,,the figures would be much different

its kind of like saying adults kill more people than kids do,,,well,, adults have better ACCESS to the resources and more experiences that fuel homicide

and most terrorists plot to kill more than one person at a time while gladly including their own life in the carnage

cops try to save their own lives, by getting in groups and taking down one person who is a 'threat'

its ok for the police to be the way they are, MH just explained it...

they need to be shooting unarmed people, tazing kids in the face, beating up peacefull, unarmed protesters...


as long as your ok with it, thats all that matters..

wow, just wow,,,

I AM NO FAN OF = ITS OK,,,,lol

I just have to believe some of these responses are SELECTIVELY IGNORANT,, grown folks have to have better reading comprehension than is displayed in these threads,,,


wow

and how many terrorists are in the US right now?

here is what your gurl Fienstien has to say about it...(she was one of the "'collect all guns' people")

http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/terrorism-danger-still-very-real-for-united-states-says-senator-dianne-feinstein/

I don't have a 'girl' named Feinstein

if she believes in not allowing anyone to have any gun, she is expressing extremism

if? now you don't know about her?

shes the obama of the west coast, doesn't think anyone should have a gun... but her views on whats happening with the terrorists here in america are quite extreme, and at the same time, she doesn't think we should be able to defend ourselves against the threat shes blabbering about...

I say 'if' because I Have learned that anonymous internet users can claim whatever they want about whomever they want

I don't know that Feinstein has proposed to take every gun of every type from every home,, I haven't researched it,


therefore, for me , it is still an IF

IF its true, its an extremist position,,,

when you have a chance, research it and see what you think...
don't forget to read about her husband buying an automatic rifle while she was in the middle of this...

No,the Idiot wants to ban ALL Guns from Civilians,yet is a Concealed Carrier!
Stinking Hypocrites the Lot,Her,Schumer,Reid and all the rest!
Trash!

so far, all I find is info on ASSAULT WEAPONS

http://www.factcheck.org/2013/02/proposed-weapons-ban-exempts-government-officials/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Dianne_Feinstein#Gun_politics


any links to her proposed legislation to take or ban ALL guns ?