This is why I believe we need a change in the attitude of our police departments

[Platapus]

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015...etail=facebook

A single mother and her six children are picking up the pieces after several police agencies, including the Cherokee County Sheriff’s deputies, local Galena, Kansas police, the Kansas Bureau of Investigations and the FBI used all their might to raid her home looking for 40-year-old Doug Alexius, an alleged member of a gang known as the “Joplin Honkies.”


The law enforcement agencies engaged in a 20-hour standoff, despite the homeowner insisting he was not in the house. Neighbors watched as police used military-style equipment to punch huge holes in the house, rip out the family’s Christmas tree and basically destroy destroy everything in the house:

This is just one of an increasing number of similar stories that really concern me.



There has to be a better way to handle things like this. I truly believe that one of the more serious risks to our liberty and our way of life is the attitude of the police with respect to the citizens. A police force can not be allowed to adopt a consequentialism philosophy. Citizens and their property should never be considered "acceptable losses".


A police force and its members need to be held accountable to the citizens they have sworn to protect.


I would like to see three general changes


1. Demilitarize the police.



I feel that the practice of allowing police to wear military like uniforms and have military like titles/ranks encourages a psychological separation between the police and the public they are serving. The military fully understands the effects of uniforms and ranks and it serves the military well as a separation on the battlefront is important. Not so with police. If you dress the police up like military, refer to them by military rank (how many times do we see some chief of police wearing 4-stars like a general.), give them military ranks it is no wonder why they are acting like an occupying military force in a "us against them" posture.



2. Eliminate police departments investigating themselves. If a local/county police officer is suspected of misconduct concerning the civil rights of a citizen, the State needs to investigate the case, not the beer buddies of the suspect. If a state police office is suspected, then the federal government investigates. How this system of friends investigating friends came about I don't know, unless they looked at congress (But that is a different rant).


These elevated investigations are especially important whenever a citizen is killed by the police. There can not be any more "benefit of the doubt". A full, fair, and impartial investigation is necessary for the citizens to have trust in their police forces.


3. Bring accountability down to the individual police officer. If the investigation reveals that the police officer significantly violated the law/policy, not only is the force accountable, but the individual must be held accountable. Personal accountability is a basis for our legal structure. Citizens have a lot of freedom of action.. but also have accountability for the consequences of their actions. At an absolute minimum a police officer must have the same level of accountability as a citizen and really should be held to a higher standard.


The police are the group that has the authority to infringe the most on a citizens' civil rights. That is necessary for their job. But because they do have significant power over the citizens, the police must be held accountable for their actions.



A lot of citizens have lost trust in the police and we have new generations growing up knowing nothing but distrust for the police. If we are to fix this, we must fix the problems with the police and their attitudes towards citizens.


The citizens are NOT the enemy and we should not be treated as the enemy.



The police are very fond of saying that the vast majority of police are doing their job well and the issues are with isolated "bad cops".


I will reverse that back on the police and say that the vast majority of citizens are obeying the law and criminals are a group of isolated "bad citizens".



Is it right to consider every cop bad? Of course not. Then why is it acceptable for the police to adopt an attitude of everyone is a suspect unless proven not to be... especially when the police have guns!d


I am a law abiding citizen. I fear the police much more than I fear Daesh.



And that is a terrible way to live.



Sorry for the rant, but stories like this really concern me.