The Rise of the Warrior Cop

Wall Street Journal ^ | July 20, 2013 | Radley Balko

[OneWingedShark]

I’ve been using a variation of that implicit threat with leftists for a while now. Most are so horrified that they don’t know how to respond. They just walk away. Seed planted.

I'm intrigued:
What's the scenario you use?

[x1stcav]

It’d be kinda tough on old newspaper delivery women all over the country.

[CPO retired]

That is what they will come with. More militarized SWAT units around now, I see.

He got 6 hits (one fatal) with 31 rounds, they fired off 250 and got two hits?

The LAPD who put 102 bullet holes in a Tacoma pickup wounded one of the occupants with two hits. Sounds like a lot of agencies need some range time and training.

[Neidermeyer]

First thing, is change your front door so that it cannot be “knocked” open
*****************************
Good luck on that ... a 200# cement filled pipe “door knocker” will open anything ,, and if it can’t it’s been code in my area for over 20 years that first floor windows must be no more than 24” above floor level ... even he heftiest officer donut can enter any window at will.

[AnonymousConservative]

I know. Just every time I think about how Liberals think, I have to ay it out loud because I can’t beleive how lacking in any sense of honor they are, or how different from us they are.

[rockrr]

Convo usually starts with the lib saying “I’m going to enjoy watching the law eradicate you gun nuts”

My reply is typically, “Don’t you believe that citizens should have the right to defend themselves?”

Because it is an uncomfortable question they shift gears with, “When TSHIF the cops and the military are gonna hunt you down like the rabid dogs you are, and I’m gonna point you out to them”.

This is where I say something like, “When TSHTF I won’t bother trying to fight with forces that are better outfitted than I. Instead, the chaos that ensues will give me cover to seek the retribution you’ve been begging for all these years. I know where you live - I know where your children go to school - I know where you work and hang out. I won’t go up against SWAT teams in MRAPS and auto weapons but I will eliminate as many of YOU as I feel like, on my timetable, at my discretion, and with complete impunity. The cops will be so busy putting down rioters and looters they won’t have time to bother with the likes of you. I’ll take your food, your shelter, and anything else I want. You won’t be needing it anymore.”

“You are the ones responsible for where we are today and as the old proverb goes, “They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind”

It’s best done with a soft voice and a smile... ;-)

[freerepublicchat]

Conservatives are to blame for this to some degree.

We often talk about opposing big government while forgetting that a strong local government closely connected to the people is necessary.

The police power should understand that it answers to the people. When that power instead answers to authorities from distant places, abuse of police power has fewer consequences.

We should emphasize that we’re not against all government, just government that doesn’t get consent from the people governed.

The closer and more local rule making and governing are to the people, the fewer the abuses. In the limit this reduces to absolute self-government. Nothing could be more local than governing yourself, but government is necessary as people come together to interact. Local towns with mayors and a town hall are often enough to serve this purpose.

But the problem with many liberals is that they think they have a right to govern everyone everywhere. It’s not enough that they they be true-believers in their own ideology exercising control in their own towns and cities — they feel they have to force their ideology on everyone. They won’t be happy until everyone is living in their idea of utopia.

[freerepublicchat]

First thing, is change your front door so that it cannot be “knocked” open by police or other home invaders. American doors were designed in a pre hope and change environment and are no longer appropriate designs.

I've often advocated outward opening exterior doors.

People will complain that someone might might remove the door at the hinges. Fine. That takes much more time than a simple kick-in.

And kicked-in doors can often be quickly closed again, hiding most of the evidence that someone has entered.

[gotribe]

Time to disarm cops and governments. Only Citizens should bear arms.

[af_vet_rr]

Because for years, the job of law enforcement has turned into a “US vs THEM” game. It is no longer the cop on the beat, getting to know the people in the neighborhood.

Exactly. And history is full of governments that had some kind of military or law enforcement separating the peasants from the ruling class.

When you create a powerful, militarized, law enforcement system, and when their job relies on them finding things to write tickets or jail people over, it's a recipe for disaster.

A lot of the tinfoil types are worried about federal law enforcement, when the numbers of federal law enforcement are very low compared to the whole population. What the tinfoil types should be worried about is the local and state law enforcement, because that is who they will most likely come into contact with.

[af_vet_rr]

I've often advocated outward opening exterior doors.

People will complain that someone might might remove the door at the hinges. Fine. That takes much more time than a simple kick-in.

Our back door opens outwards. For a while, I was going to replace it with an inward opening door. I started to take it off the hinges and check everything out, and a few minutes in, and I didn't even have the first bolt/hinge removed (it was a unique assembly of sorts that required a lot of effort and the right tools), and I was making a helluva racket. Around that time there was a spate of kick-in burglaries in the neighborhood, just random kick in the door, grab stuff and be gone in less than two minutes.

I decided to leave the door be. Most burglaries in our area these days are kick-in, and they are not going to be carrying the proper tools or be willing to spend 5-10 minutes making a lot of racket, especially when we have a couple of dogs in the house that will hear them trying to take the hinges off. 5-10 minutes of trying to get the hinges off will only make the dogs that much more pissed off as well.

[x1stcav]

Shhhhh! Don’t tell them. That way, more of us will survive.

[x1stcav]

Hooahh!

Best GD thing I’ve heard lately.

Neighborhood Watch groups deputized by the County Sheriff.

Brilliant of you.

[American in Israel]

In Israel doors are made of metal, and the bolts work on the top and bottom not just the sides. The frame is concrete filled steel, so you don’t have to just split a 2 x 4 to get the door open. All the doors open in so that they cant pile crap up against the door and lock you in.

You cannot kick in an Israeli door for beans.

I think, now that I am in the US again that I will put a piece of angle iron all the way down the bolt side of the frame and screw it in every six inches with a nice long screw. You will have to split the entire frame, not just pop out a chunk of wood by the bolt hole.

http://www.etodoors.com/shop/family/commercial_steel_doors

[qaz123]

Best part about the MRAPS, is that the recommended fuel is JP-8. Diesel can be used in a pinch, but not for the long term. Lots and lots of maintenance that I doubt the local garage can perform.

Like most military equipment, there’s a reason the military can use it. They’re the only ones that can afford the maintenance and upkeep.

But fear not, the SWAT deputies in x-small t-shirts, shaved heads, HGH running thru their veins, and goatees will find a reason to use it.

[qaz123]

I’m in law enforcement. I saw this “military creep” a long time ago and wasn’t much of a fan. Now, all I hear is the “as long as I get home” mantra as the answer for everything. Well, if the danger associated with the job is that overwhelming, than maybe they should find another line of work. But, there is a certain intoxicant that goes with being able to carry a weapon anywhere you want.

But, at the end of the day, their perceived “threat level/assessment”(for lack of a better term) concerning their jobs, doesn’t give them the right to terrorize the very people they are supposed to be protecting.

For me, the best part is what happens after the fact. How often does it come to light that the cops had all sorts of knowledge on a person’s whereabouts, where they could have easily conducted a traffic stop or had a guy called to his supervisors office(IE the guy killed in Pima Cty). Or most recently, the nurse that was terrorized. I would like that US Marshal to show me where in his training, was he taught that just because someone doesn’t answer the door they way HE wants them to, that that translates into probably cause or exigent circumstances. That guy should be fired.

And then there’s the whole issue of accountability. These cops do some pretty crazy sh*t and nothing happens to them. Let a couple get hemmed up and see how much this activity is scaled back.

[Reeses]

Now, all I hear is the “as long as I get home” mantra as the answer for everything.

Many honest jobs are more dangerous than performing armed highway robbery: fisherman, lumberjack, aircraft pilot, farmer, roofer, welder, trash collector, factory maintenance worker, truck driver, construction worker. To be fair a trucker should be able to mount a machine gun on his rig to insure he can get home at the end of the day. Airline pilots should be given parachutes so they can bail on the passengers if they feel threatened. Trash trucks should look like armored personnel carriers with huge robot claws.

Law enforcement has become the public face of tyranny. It wasn't like that 10 years ago.

[Hot Tabasco]

he grabbed his 9-millimeter Beretta pistol. himself in his jail cell.

WTF???? they attacked him while he was in jail????

[qaz123]

Tru Dat.

I always love to hear the whole, “you don’t know what its like”...”I’m out there, at war, on the streets”. When in fact, a very, very significant amount of time is spent doing nothing. Not to downplay the dangerous stuff, that can happen at any moment, but its no more dangerous than some guy on a crab boat in Alaska. In fact, its less dangerous.

I started in ‘97. And the way it has mutated in the last 5-10 years is scary. I bought into it at first, I think most cops do, in the beginning. But, then I woke up and didn’t like what I was seeing.

Biggest problem the cops will have, if the SHTF, is that a lot of the people know what they’re doing. Some far more skilled than the cops. And that makes for a dangerous time.

Right now in Atlanta, they’re having a hard time getting cops to be able to qualify with their weapons. And these are going to be some of the same folks that could show up at your door, based on a tip.

[Atlantan]

My husband just came back from a gun show in Marietta, GA. He was talking to someone at a booth who was concerned about a law enforcement youth group called Explorers. He was worried it was training youth to be warrior cops. Just as he finished talking a guy and girl about 16 y/o walked by dressed all in black and looking like they were on a SWAT team (except for the weapons). They looked scary to my husband, almost like future warriors for a totalitarian state.

Info on law enforcement explorer groups: http://www.golawenforcement.com/PoliceExplorer.htm