Punishment, Crime and Culture - Part 2 Additional: Enforcement

Law enforcement is... a tricky situation. I didn't actually intend to write this bit here, but we've had some many problems lately it almost feels like some sort of epidemic is upon us. "What sort of epidemic?" you ask.

Rogue police who shoot first and then lie about it afterward.

Before we're done with this it is entirely possible that you may come to suspect that I am not a fan of the police...

New Crime Policy #4: Dissolve the police and replace them with Public Safety Conscripts.

This one is easily going to be the hardest one to swallow yet. I won't blame you if you have to think about this for a year or more before coming to see my point. That's fine really; major policy changes should never be made lightly, even if innocent people have to die in the interim. The cost of real progress will never be cheap no matter what the subject matter is.

Here is the problem in a nut shell: Have you ever stopped to think about what kind of person actually wants to become a police officer?

No really. I bet you actually know people who have been or are involved in law enforcement; think about what you know about them as people, what their personalities are like, what their emotional re-activity levels are like. (Not to mention their testosterone levels...)

Here's the question you need to honestly answer for yourself: Do you trust them?

Let me tell you something about me that you can quite easily verify for yourself if you like: I have no criminal record whatsoever. I don't even have points against my driving record. I have never been in any trouble more significant than a moving traffic violation. I am a law-abiding, tax-paying - white, middle-class, male - model citizen. And I don't trust the police.

Why would I feel that way? Because they don't act trustworthy.

I have to tell you, I'm really upset about the recent shooting death here in Saratoga Springs. True, I do not know all the details. Unfortunately, the details I do know have already proven that the initial statements of the officers involved were lies. They killed an essentially unarmed, probably mildly autistic, young man - shot him in the back as he was, quite literally, running for his life. And why?

I can't answer that. If I had to guess - and because they've already proven themselves to be liars, we're all going to have to guess - I would say that their imaginations are more real to them than the abstract reality of bullets tearing flesh. Dead men tell no tales, but ballistics do. These particular "officers of the law" are criminals. They deserve to be tried for murder and "punished" as the current system demands.

Not that that will solve anything, mind you. The kid is dead and is going to stay that way. Besides, as you will recall, punishment is only another word for revenge. I would kind of like a little revenge right now, to be honest. But instead I will make it a point to never learn these officer's names nor any more of the details about their inexcusable, emotionally reactive, organic crime. They are examples of what not to be, as well as perfect examples of why we need to implement my new policy.

The problem with police is that they want to be police. They want the prestige - and the authority - the appears to come with the job. They want to be "respected", which, just like in the thug culture that I'm going to refer to in my conclusion to this series, means very little more than "feared" and "obeyed".

And yes, I know what you're going to tell me: "I know police who aren't like that." I'm sure you do. There are exceptions, or at least partial exceptions, to every generalization. (Otherwise it would be a "law of nature" and not a "generalization".) I have to tell you, whether there are or aren't "good cops" still out there really doesn't matter anymore. There have been so many bad apples - especially recently - that if we don't do something truly pro-active soon, we are going to have a civil war on our hands.

And won't that just be the most ironic thing ever; the very people whose job it is to maintain the peace will have been the ones who destroyed it. Such a thing really must not be allowed to happen.

So let's talk a little about why the current police force can't do their job. I do need to be fair here, after all. Plus this is still, ultimately, about goals; in this case, the goal of enforcing the codes of organic and inorganic criminal law.

The first reason that the police can't do their job is because they've been required to enforce artificial laws. Here's a piece of truth that you can take to the bank and/or use in your own defense at the Pearly Gates:

All artificial legislation is unsustainable.

In fact, you could go ahead and generalize that even further by noticing that all artificiality of any kind is unsustainable. But I really shouldn't derail the topic by going on abstract tangents, so let me just say:

The fact that you have to expend ever greater - and never smaller - amounts of energy, money and/or lives to keep a policy going proves that it is both unsustainable and artificial. It proves that there is something fundamentally unnatural about your approach, and that it should, at the very least, be revamped, and at the very most, dismantled and abandoned completely.

And this is the situation police find themselves in all day every day. They are called to deal with ever spiraling levels of materialism and jealousy caused by ever diminishing levels of awareness, education and empathy. There is an epic-scale cultural shift going on in the world right now whose effects are not always pleasant. No one is immune and no one will escape untouched, especially those called upon to deal with the worst elements of those cultures.

So, in addition to everything else, when police have to plan and execute around vastly artificial statutes like drug laws, when they have to contend with ever-looming threats of person-to-person violence for the contents of wallets and purses, it's no wonder that they get very overwhelmed very quickly. Police work has got to be among the most stressful work on this planet. Anyone would be expected to eventually crack under such pressure; if not in the mind, then in the body. (And most likely both...)

If there was ever a case where society truly was "to blame", it is in enacting such a plethora of ridiculously artificial laws and then saddling our police forces to attempt - and ultimately fail miserably - to enforce them. We've made police work impossible. Not "difficult", not "complex", but quite literally IMPOSSIBLE. As such, it's no wonder that the stress is taking its toll.

That is, however, no excuse for murder.

Every person has to be responsible to notice when their edge is near, especially those who have been trained - and sworn an oath - to do so. "I was stressed out" can never be a negotiable excuse when lives are on the line; not from me, not from you and definitely not from the police.

The next reason that police can't do their job is because of their culture. I suppose I just won't be able to save all of the cultural stuff for later, so here goes with this one:

It is just as I asked: What kind of person would actively want to be a police officer?

I really don't care that you may know police officers who you like and admire. They went out of their way to purposely obtain the second most dangerous regular occupation on this planet (the first being active military), and it wasn't for "altruistic" reasons. It was, for lack of a better word - and maybe there really is no better word - for pride.

Pride, as they say, comes before a fall. The only reason we haven't heard more about police abuses (of all sorts) in the past was because we didn't have an Internet and video cameras on every mobile phone. Police have always been - and always will be, until we re-create them in a more sustainable manner - operating right at the edge of complete corruption. Why is that? Because the old saying really is true: power corrupts. Police culture in this country is a little more than an officially sanctioned and well equipped mafia. And if it wasn't for the persistent activism of the average American citizen, we would already have a full police state.

And the last reason that police can't do their job is, quite frankly, because they have finally lost the very last vestiges of confidence that honest, well-meaning people once had in them. These days, everyone who gets stopped expects to get hassled, expects to have to kiss ass in order not to be tasered, wrestled to the ground and cuffed - or as so many have recently found out, shot in the back as they attempted to flee from the neighborhood's biggest syndicate of known bullies.

Frankly, I just don't think there's any rebounding that's possible. Even if, as you may well argue, the "majority" of them are still "hard-working, honest cops", the corrupt and incompetent ones have more than ruined it for the rest. No, the window of opportunity for the professional policeman has come to an end. It's time they were dismantled and replaced with something much more controllable and accountable. Which is where conscription comes in.

You are aware of the idea of "the draft" for purposes of pressing civilians into military service, are you not? It is rather a terrible thing to do (which is why we haven't actively done it for a good long while now), yet the principle behind it is a sound one: In times of great need, ordinary people may be called upon to forego their private interests for the sake of a public one.

This is a time of great need.

Do you disagree? I mean, I consider myself an extreme Individualist, but even I could not resist the very real safety and freedom demands of my fellow citizens. And would I be scared? You bet your ass I would! (Especially if I had to go out and try to enforce drug laws.) But I would do it nonetheless, because it is my duty, and especially under the terms I'm about to suggest.

Here's how it works: All standard police forces are phased out to be replaced with Public Safety Conscripts. The conscripts would spend a year training - preferably locally, so they can go home at night, or at least on weekends - and then the subsequent two years in active duty, also locally.

That's right, these "policemen" are not going to be strangers. They're going to live in the communities that they serve and return to normal life in those communities once their rotation is done. People are going to know them personally. More importantly, people are going to know if they did a "good job" or not while they were in service.

And most importantly, when they're done they will A) never need fear being drafted again and B) have no lingering illusion of "authority" from having held their never-meant-to-be-a-culture position.

As for the duties of a Public Safety Officer? They would patrol, never alone, equipped with a radio and a stun gun. That's it, no deadly weapons at all. They would look for problems to solve and people to assist. And if they ever encountered a situation where violence was underway or an imminent threat, they would immediately call for backup from Special Forces and/or the Army Reserve.

Yes there would still be an armed element of police available, but they would not be the police on the ground, and that's the point.

Of course, with changed statutes so as to decriminalize drugs and eliminate physical currency, it seems likely that the main sorts of crimes these cops would have to deal with would be traffic infractions and domestic disturbances. Big crime situations would probably be highly unusual. The job might even become significantly boring.

But even if that were true, it would still be a very dangerous job, with very real stresses. It would not be wise to force any one person to remain in such a role over long. They should train up, serve their community for one specific, short period of time and then retire back to their previous ambitions, better suited to a well-balanced life having become much more aware of the lives and situations of other real people.

But make no mistake, the real motivation behind the conscription strategy is to eliminate police culture. They have too much power and too little accountability, and we're now seeing, quite clearly in these well documented times, just how little respect for life - or law - they truly have. It won't do. It must be corrected.

This is my solution - and no, it isn't particularly pleasant - but it would work. You don't like it? Then let's hear yours. (And make sure that it actually addresses the goal...)

Sincerely,

--Geo