USA - The Growing Epidemic of Police Violence: Is It Time to De-Militarize Police Forces?

In the article “The Growing Epidemic of Police Violence: Is It Time to De-Militarize Police Forces?” John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford institute and author of ‘A Government of Wolves’, tells us about the increase of police brutality and how the problem can be solved in his opinion.

The author of the article begins with the important question, that he hopes to answer, namely “how long will the police be able to get away with its ruthless tactics, before the people say ‘stop’?” He continues by giving us two examples of the police overreacting, where either humans or their pets were severely harmed through police wrongdoing. Further he explains that the source of the problem is the attitude of the “Special Weapons and Tactics”, in short SWAT, because nowadays these trained-to-kill teams are involved even in harmless situations. He also states that general mentality of the police department has changed from protecting the population from the bad guys to fighting an all-out war against crime.

The author then continues by giving us another two examples where instances of the police overreacting has led to casualties, this time focusing more on the “shoot first, ask questions later” aspect, followed by an explanation why he thinks that this is the case today. His explanation is that police officers are trained to use excessive and even deadly force and to report their actions in such a way, that there isn’t any doubt that the officer dealt with the situation correctly and thus avoiding legal complications.
 
To finish the article Mr. Whitehead states that the problem can only be solved if the police get rid of their violent mindset and that the people themselves need to take the initiative.

What we have to say about this:
 
This article shows quite well that instances of police brutality aren’t uncommon in the USA. There always seem to be fresh reports in the media about the police overreacting to harmless situations, or police brutality. It’s also frequent that police forces use excessive or even deadly force under circumstances that do not warrant it. Many people are of the opinion that police officers abuse their power, for example through overuse of their tasers or their pepper sprays. In Basel the use of SWAT team equivalents is nowhere near as common. Most situations in our local area are dealt with in a very low-key way instead of the large-scale police operations that seem to occur in the United States on a regular basis.

The differences in the way that police forces conduct themselves results in a major difference in mindset between Americans and the people in Basel and the rest of Switzerland. For instance when we get pulled over by a police officer, we don’t usually have any concerns about the officer treating us unfairly or even physically harming us. The thought that a member of a police department would harm us when we interact with them never really crosses our mind. This is probably due to the fact we do not hear about these sort of things happening near us. We are of the opinion that things like this just don’t happen as often where we live. When the people of America regularly hear about police wrong-doing in the media, they develop a deep mistrust of the people whose job it is to protect them.

This mistrust leads to some serious negative consequences. If the population don’t trust their local police force, it makes the jobs of those police officers much harder. People are less likely to cooperate and more likely to avoid any interaction with law enforcement if they can. This reduced cooperation caused by the general mindset of the people could therefore hinder police investigations and lead to more crimes remaining unsolved.

We also get the sense that people feel helpless when dealing with the police in America. People do not dare put up any resistance or protect themselves from them out of fear of facing more severe consequences. And even when people are wronged by police officers, the officers themselves very rarely face any consequences. Many instances are reported in such a way that the officer himself is absolved of any wrong decisions. Officers feeling that they are untouchable because they think they can get away with anything, is probably what leads to these cases of police brutality in the first place.

We also have the same opinion as the author of the article when it comes to the mentality of law enforcement in general. We think there is a huge difference between Switzerland and the US when it comes to this aspect. The “shoot first, ask questions later”-attitude is not prevalent where we live. It exists in the US partly because every citizen has the constitutional right to carry a gun and that police officers need to protect themselves if they have to. But it seems that within the police force a culture has developed, where police officers try to avoid all risk by using excessive force, even in situations that do not warrant it.

To summarize, we think there is a very stark contrast between the police force in our local area, where people do not feel threatened by the law enforcement and the US where an increasingly aggressive and militarized police force has led to the general population fearing the people employed to protect them. (M.C, M.H, L.B, O.M)