How the Drug War Broke Policing

[linux07]

During our national conversation on police and criminal justice, there will be many reforms proposed that will help increase police accountability and encourage better behavior. We should absolutely reform unions, abolish qualified immunity, and address how police are investigated after excessive force is used. But it is also important that we look to one of the root causes of why the police no longer have that wholesome, Norman Rockwell image. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that, every day, thousands of police suit up to go to war against their fellow citizens.

Drug “crimes” are qualitatively different from other types of crimes, i.e. real crimes. Real crimes have victims, and victims call the police to investigate and hopefully catch the perpetrator. The victim of a robbery calls the police, invites the police into his house, asks them to take evidence, and gives them all the information he has.

When crimes have no real victims, however, policing fundamentally changes.

How the Drug War Broke Policing

Perhaps our current problem began when thousands of police started suiting up to go to war against their fellow citizens.

www.cato.org

 

[BrokeLoser]

During our national conversation on police and criminal justice, there will be many reforms proposed that will help increase police accountability and encourage better behavior. We should absolutely reform unions, abolish qualified immunity, and address how police are investigated after excessive force is used. But it is also important that we look to one of the root causes of why the police no longer have that wholesome, Norman Rockwell image. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that, every day, thousands of police suit up to go to war against their fellow citizens.

Drug “crimes” are qualitatively different from other types of crimes, i.e. real crimes. Real crimes have victims, and victims call the police to investigate and hopefully catch the perpetrator. The victim of a robbery calls the police, invites the police into his house, asks them to take evidence, and gives them all the information he has.

When crimes have no real victims, however, policing fundamentally changes.

How the Drug War Broke Policing

Perhaps our current problem began when thousands of police started suiting up to go to war against their fellow citizens.

www.cato.org

Is it odd that nearly all perpetrators of crime tend to be under the influence?
What came first, the chicken or the egg?

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

“This is the policing the drug war has given us. While the drug war is not the only reason police have become more violent and less accountable, its effect on policing, while difficult to fully quantify, is immense.” ibid

And the policing that will continue with current drug laws on the books.

 

[KissMy]

Also "Broken Windows Theory Policing" screwed us. Cops go hard on small infractions while big damaging organized white-collar crime is ignored.

 

[Picaro]

Rubbish. What the drug war showed us was the hippies' true colors; they loved shoving money into the pockets of the worst vermin on the planet: serial killers, rapists, slavers, pimps, porno purveyors, mafioso, gang bangers, pedophiles, the lowest forms of walking filth were their heroes. Blaming the cops for the general decline in morals and the rise of sociopathic drug cultures is just dishonest stupidity, and easy sell these days but total bullshit. Nobody forces anybody to do business with the scum, they do business with them because they're no different than them.

 

[Cellblock2429]

During our national conversation on police and criminal justice, there will be many reforms proposed that will help increase police accountability and encourage better behavior. We should absolutely reform unions, abolish qualified immunity, and address how police are investigated after excessive force is used. But it is also important that we look to one of the root causes of why the police no longer have that wholesome, Norman Rockwell image. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that, every day, thousands of police suit up to go to war against their fellow citizens.

Drug “crimes” are qualitatively different from other types of crimes, i.e. real crimes. Real crimes have victims, and victims call the police to investigate and hopefully catch the perpetrator. The victim of a robbery calls the police, invites the police into his house, asks them to take evidence, and gives them all the information he has.

When crimes have no real victims, however, policing fundamentally changes.

How the Drug War Broke Policing

Perhaps our current problem began when thousands of police started suiting up to go to war against their fellow citizens.

www.cato.org

/——/ Are we scheduling a national conversation on improving criminal behavior?

 

[Picaro]

Rubbish. What the drug war showed us was the hippies' true colors; they loved shoving money into the pockets of the worst vermin on the planet: serial killers, rapists, slavers, pimps, porno purveyors, mafioso, gang bangers, pedophiles, the lowest forms of walking filth were their heroes. Blaming the cops for the general decline in morals and the rise of sociopathic drug cultures is just dishonest stupidity, and easy sell these days but total bullshit. Nobody forces anybody to do business with the scum, they do business with them because they're no different than them.

And, I'll add that it was easy for the scum to set up shop, since the hippies had parents who were themselves a lot of drunks; alcohol abuse had reached back to pre-Prohibition levels of drunkeness by the early 1960's; the two are tied together at the hip. The slaughter on the highways by drunk driving was a national scandal, killing and maiming more Americans people in a year than the entire Viet Nam war did. Hippies had pretty poor examples to go by, making them easy targets for commies and sexual degenerates and other assorted sociopaths.

 

[pknopp]

Also "Broken Windows Theory Policing" screwed us. Cops go hard on small infractions while big damaging organized white-collar crime is ignored.

Steal $150 and go to prison. Steal millions and get away with it.

That noted yes, the reaction to minor offenses by the police is a huge problem.

Tulsa police release video of officers arresting black teens for alleged jaywalking

Eric Garner had previously been arrested for selling loose cigarettes. He would sell someone that couldn't afford $12 for a pack (or whatever it was in NY at the time) a loose one for a buck or something. Horrors.

All the while huge crimes were being committed by Wall Street and they all walked.

 

[BlindBoo]

De-fund the Drug War. (The war on American citizens who used non-government approved recreational substances)

Good article by Cato too.

"A modern police officer can don the accoutrements of a soldier fighting in Fallujah and arrive at the “scene of the crime” in an armored personnel carrier designed for military use. They can also request permission from a magistrate judge (nearly always given) to carry out a “no‐knock” raid—such as the raid that killed a young black woman named Breonna Taylor—and go in with full force. The door is violently busted open, flash bang grenades are thrown in, and armed men come rushing in throwing the occupants to the ground threatening to shoot them, if not actually pulling the trigger.

What else could they do? After all, drugs were in there.

But there weren’t, unfortunately for the cops. The informant lied or was misinformed, or maybe the cop lied on the warrant, as has also been known to occur. While the occupants are picking up the pieces of their broken house and consoling each other over the trauma they endured, the police are miffed. They were hoping to find a big stash they could put on TV or some money they could take for themselves. Through the process of forfeiture, in which drug‐dealing assets and proceeds can be legally taken and kept by police, drug raids often look more attractive than hitting the streets with some old‐fashioned shoe leather policing.

And for some police officers, drug raids are just more fun. With policing having changed so fundamentally from the baton‐twirling Officer Friendly, is it a surprise that some officers joined the force because they want to be the baton‐bashing Officer Shut the F*** Up?

This is the policing the drug war has given us. While the drug war is not the only reason police have become more violent and less accountable, its effect on policing, while difficult to fully quantify, is immense