The rule of law in America is breaking down, without a doubt. But rogue cops are not the primary problem. Not to say there aren’t bad cops, but the real problem is a public who thinks they know the truth about…well, everything. We’ve become more than willing to forego basic legal protections and try everyone in the court of public opinion. We let the media be the prosecution, and we get to be the judge. Our social media of choice gets to file charges, and once we’ve seen those it’s “guilty until proven innocent against all odds.”
By a show of hands, who would like to put their life and livelihood in the hands of this “wonderful” new justice system? Who would want their guilt or innocence determined by a majority vote of the outraged, based on cherry-picked information presented by whomever screams loudest first, and with any contrary evidence that comes out in subsequent days ignored?
Count me out.
Likewise, some people are starting to propose that we nationalize law enforcement. Unsurprisingly, this recommendation was recently made by Al Sharpton, who has benefited immensely from national-level law enforcement for years in the form of an IRS who would rather pursue small business owners for the unforgivable crime of making cash deposits in their bank accounts than even attempt to get Sharpton to pay even some of his millions in back taxes. It’s no surprise he’d prefer to be policed by people who have shown no interest in policing him.
But really, in what universe is turning police duties over to the Federal Government a good idea? Their track record of late is not exactly inspiring. Nor is there any reason to suspect a Federal police force would not only be incompetent but highly-politicized as well. I know some people would see this as a feature, not a bug, and that the ability to harass and punish political enemies is a Constitutional right–so long as it’s their side in control, and not the opposition.
I hope wiser heads prevail.
In the mean time, read this column by Glenn Harlan Reynolds if you need more convincing that a nationalized police force is a good idea.
Very good analogy. You forgot that in the face of the social media plaintiff, the media prosecution and the public judge, the defense is always self represented. Not even a public defender is awarded. Talk about cards stacked against you. We have a serious problem. How do we turn this ship around?
Well, they’re not entirely self-represented, but the media prosecution is not the least bit interested in entertaining contrary evidence, and so the defense counsel is largely ignored. The public jury usually jams their fingers in their ears should anyone try to present evidence for the defense and will show incredible levels of skepticism of any contrary evidence that gets through in direct proportion to their eagerness to accept the prosecution’s case without question.
First thought. A national police would NOT have to be incompetent. BUT, it surely would be politicized.
In the event of the latter, we may actually prefer they be incompetent.
AND, there are several noted cases of … a lack of efficiency. But, in reality, I doubt that it is any more prevalent than in smaller forces. It is just more publicized. Regardless, the other points are VERY valid. Corruption, and politicization WOULD be rampant.
That WOULD be preferable in that instance.
The irony is that if they nationalized the police force in order to get rid of the bad apples, who do they think they’d be getting? Wouldn’t the logical choice be to take all police forces as is? All the bad apples remain until they out themselves as such.
Yes, but because “their” guy is in office and always will be, so only the “there” guys would bear the brunt of the political hounding … which is entirely as it should be … bastards.