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12/04/2005 Archived Entry: "Racism? Just Statism. Disarming off-duty cops"

RACISM? JUST STATISM.The International Association of Chiefs of Police the same organization that reminds police officers that "the law does not require that the threat of death or serious injury be imminent" before summary execution of anyone who might be a suicide bomber, wants to disarm off-duty police officers.

It seems that there have been a handful of cases where off-duty officers, who are nearly always armed, have been shot by fellow officers who thought they were criminals. Vin Suprynowicz writes about this in If a black man is armed, is he a criminal?.

Vin does a fine job dissecting the racist overtones of this policy, but there is a simpler explanation, one that applies to all cops, racist and otherwise.

Police have become militarized, with army-style weapons, tactics, training, and mindset. Armies are trained to find and kill the enemy.

We, meaning citizens, are now the enemy. When a soldier sees someone pointing a gun, or any other weapon, and that person isn't in the right uniform, soldiers are trained to kill them. When a cop sees a gun in a non-uniformed hand, he or she is now trained to act in the same way.

It's not racism, although I can certainly believe that race is a factor. What we are seeing is the predictable results of erecting a police state.

Silver

Posted by Silver @ 09:23 AM CST
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