Posted on 08/17/2014 4:47:47 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
The executive director of the Missouri Republican Party said Sen. Rand Paul was "unhelpful" when he said that black Americans have every right to feel that they are being specifically targeted by their government and police.
Matt Wills told The Hill that he feels for the community, but Paul's comments were closer to those made by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who also called for the police to be demilitarized. Willis said he lives "about 4.5-miles outside of Ferguson" and the "political response from Paul and McCaskill to what happened is a little premature" and "unhelpful."
"This is a tragedy for all communities – not just African-American communities," Wills said, according to The Hill. "I think this all just too much, too soon from these politicians. We're still learning new details. I can't fault the police for wanting to protect themselves and the community, and I also have a deep place in my heart for the civil liberties we have as Americans."
In his op-ed, Paul said that "it is almost impossible for many Americans not to feel like their government is targeting them," and "given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them."
"Anyone who thinks that race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention," he argued. "Our prisons are full of black and brown men and women who are serving inappropriately long and harsh sentences for non-violent mistakes in their youth."
Paul also wrote that "Americans must never sacrifice their liberty for an illusive and dangerous, or false, security."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
There is somewhat of a disconnect in what Paul is alleging. Yes, there are agencies of the Government which deliberately target conservative Americans because of their strongly held religious, economic, or civil rights beliefs. This is not the same as a police officer who is under attack by someone who just pulled a strong armed robbery. Conservatives are targeted for harassment by the Government, when they have broken no laws. That is not the same as being targeted for arrest because of a strong armed robbery, and having to use deadly force in self defense against a violent strong armed robber.
Amen. Paul is way out in left field on this one.
Rand lost all chance that I will support him for any office. How damned stupid for him to get involved in this issue.
Maybe he should run for Mayor of Cleveland and become the next Dennis Kucinich.
The police responded to rioting and looting wearing riot gear and a few hand me down trophies from Homeland Security. The riot gear is necessary. The armored vehicles belong in a combat theater, not riot control. If they were mounted with water cannons, they I would call them riot control vehicles. In any event, Fergusson has used traditional weapons of riot control, tear gas. They have not used any machine guns mounted on the APC's.
The SWAT teams do need to need limits. They should be made up of only a few officers from each of the surrounding communities and only be called out where there is a potential for a high capacity shootout like bank robbers trapped in a bank. Civil uprisings should be dealt with state units of the national guard.
The nonsense that happened in Boston during the Boston Marathon a year and a half ago should never be repeated. The police shut down a major city and surrounding towns (about 100 square miles and a population of 1,000,000) looking for a single Muslim on the run. They knew he was in and searched only an area of about one square mile in a section of a town with about 32,000 people. And from that we see tee shirts saying Boston Strong where they should really say Boston Pussies.
I’ve been leery of the guy for quite some time. In a way he’s like a lot of other candidates. When you first hear of them you’re thinking they are hitting the right notes. Then you watch and realize they go sharp and flat a lot more than you first realized. Pretty soon their simply banging on the piano missing most melodies.
Ron kept it alive longer than he should have. The problem was, some of his message was very appealing, and people were willing to forgive the rest. Rand is a lot like that for me.
In Ron’s early days, he said some things I appreciated quite a bit.
Now he’s just a broken record. Every four years we can expect to see his rude boisterous college frat following make a mockery of debate decorum.
What is the job of the police ? To protect & serve the rights of the citizens .
What is the job of the military ? To fight/kill the enemies of the nation state.
These are entirely different jobs with entirely different mindsets.
When you try to make the police the military the police tend to view the citizen as enemy of the state & themselves as being able to use whatever force against whoever they please with no consequences .
This is not a good thing as it will lead to more riots with more death & destruction & in the in between riots time YOU could very easily find yourself being collateral damage to a militarized police.
excellent way to put it! will have to remember this!
Mike
Affirmative sir.
Of all the crap liberal rinos have said, that may actually be the worst of all. It sounds like something right out Jesse Jacksons mouth. Sickening.
FU Rand Pual I will never, ever vote for you, no matter who runs against you.
The demilitarization comments are fair and worthy of discussion. The race comments are abhorrent.
The arming of our domestic forces in several situations from after the Boston terrorists to the bundy ranch to ferguson are troubling to say the least. It is government force domestically as never seen before. It is swat tactics on steroids. It is miliary grade vehicles, tactics nd armor that far out ways any domestic situation. A threat to all of us, IMO.
That said, Paul’s pandering is embarrassing and disqualifying.
There’s probably a time and place for talking about militarization of police, but ferguson is NOT it.
The craziness in his blood is flaring up.
Guess again, the cops have lost the confidence of the people. Without that confidence they are & will continue to be viewed as an occupying army .
The fact that they are dressing the part & acting the part does not lead to peace in the streets only to a learning curve for more effective tactics to inflict casualties on the cops.
The object of the exercise is peace in the streets preferably without making the city look like Belfast Northern Ireland in the 70’s & 80’s.
sorry I don’t buy it the only thing wrong in ferguson is the police are allowing people to riot and loot. If they had shut it down with harsher stricter tactics that really cost the rioters something it would have ended in one night.
This militarization excuse is just the latest scapegoat in a long line— racism, poverty, slavery, profiling and now “militarization” its all bullshit scapegoating that diustracts from the real problem—Black culture fosters, promotes and enables violent criminal bahvior.
In other words “Shut Up!” He explained.
Actually, don’t you think Rand is worse than Ron?
They should have called in the National Guard as soon as it happened and given them authorization to use deadly force on looters.
The object of “riot control “ is to disperse mobs of people & if possible to arrest/detain the pudding stirrers. That requires more than just firing teargas in all directions & hitting the first person you see over the head with a club .
It requires first & foremost a relationship in the community that is more than a visiting goon squad complete with automatic weapons .
Modern crowd control also requires you to be at least as smart as the rioters in the use of communications/public relations ,communications for command & control of your own people as well & having the stones to tell the mayor that standing back & watching the looters run amok will not win the dumb bastard any votes.
What worked was the use of sufficient manpower ie not only the Ferguson PD & local area police but the state police & the National Guard, getting a good relationship with local community leaders & using targeted use of force ie instead of volleys of teargas they use police “snatch” squads” say 6-8 cops with riot shields mace & clubs to chase down the bottle throwers & other assorted pudding stirrers that were getting pointed out by the locals who were peaceably assembled .
The level of training on how to handle riots/unruly crowds was nonexistent in the local PD’s & that is usually due to budget constraints for all aspects of law enforcement.
You train a certain way to work with other PD’s as part of mutual aid but that usually involves disasters/fleeing felons/ missing person . Riot control requires hands on training as it involves massed formations working in unison .
This ain’t easy to do when properly drilled & trying to do it an the fly is a recipe for a clsuterf*ck.
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