The U.S. Police State: How The United States Has Become Its Own Worst Nightmare (infographic)
http://www.criminaljusticedegreehub.com/police-state/
The U.S. Police State: How The United States Has Become Its Own Worst Nightmare
Total Number of People Fatally Shot by British Police in Last 3 Years: 2Average Number of People Fatally Shot by U.S. Police Per Day So Far in 2015: 2.6
Of all the alarming statistics, stories, and, increasingly, videos that indicate a rising tide of police brutality – or, as the government more euphemistically terms it, “excessive force” – the above numbers should be the most concerning for every citizen of the United States. Not simply because of the astronomical disproportion at hand, but because of the object of that disproportion. To whom do we compare with so unfavorably?
That’s right. The very tyrannical entity from which we originally escaped, then rebelled. We’ve become our own worst nightmare.
Why did we rebel? State overreach that included an invasive, aggressive, and overly hostile standing militia – then the equivalent a police force. No wonder the Bill of Rights is so preoccupied with the subject…
2nd Amendment:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
3rd Amendment:
“No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”
4th Amendment:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Today, we focus on the “keep and bear arms” clause, but, for the Founding Fathers, the “well regulated militia” was arguably the more important and hotly contested point. Recalling the daily abuses of British soldiers throughout the colonies, many key figures debated whether a standing army should exist at all.
Opposed to Any National Army:
George Mason
Sam Adams
Patrick Henry
Elbridge Berry
Expressed Concerns About National Army:
Thomas Jefferson
John Adams
James Madison
With routine aggressive home entries by militarized agencies like SWAT, often on meager legal grounds, the 3rd and 4th amendments are under fire as well. As Radley Balko, author of Rise of the Warrior Cop claims:
“The founders and their contemporaries would probably have seen even the early-19th-century police forces as a standing army, and a particularly odious one at that. Just before the American Revolution, it wasn’t the stationing of British troops in the colonies that irked patriots in Boston and Virginia; it was England’s decision to use the troops for everyday law enforcement. This wariness of standing armies was born of experience and a study of history… If even the earliest attempts at centralized police forces would have alarmed the founders, today’s policing would have terrified them.”
Among the most blatant offenders are paramilitary SWAT teams, whose ubiquitous presence has only increased over the years.
Total Number of Teams in 1995: 53
Total Number of Teams in FBI Alone in 2013: 56
