Cops enforce laws. On first impression that may seem a good thing as one considers long in place laws, such as against assault, murder, and theft, that can help protect individuals’ ability to live in peace. But, laws have proliferated over time in America so that cops are spending a significant portion of their effort enforcing laws against things like drugs and even speech — acting to restrain instead of protect the exercise of individual rights.
Coming with the expansion of laws has been the conversion, continuing during the Donald Trump administration, of police departments largely into effectively military forces with military-style practices and weapons more suited for fighting against an opposing military force than for serving and protecting the people in a community.
A demonstration of the extent of this conversion of police forces came up in recent oral argument at the United States Supreme Court for the case of Martin v. United States. There a lawyer for the US government argued, in the case concerning a wrong house being hit by a brutal Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) no-knock SWAT raid, that it is acceptable for police not to even check the house number out front before detonating an explosive in a house, knocking down a door, and rushing in guns drawn. Crazy but true. Read here a Friday Reason article by Billy Binion that includes an excerpt from the oral argument and some background details.
