Survival Institute
Now Reading
The Police State Is Not The Fault Of Cops
Survival Institute
Survival Institute

The Police State Is Not The Fault Of Cops

by
January 19, 2017

It’s easy to blame police officers for our ongoing decent into a full-on police state, and, certainly, some police officers shouldn’t be in those jobs as their sadistic and control streaks come to light in how they do the job. But, the fact of the matter is that most police officers sincerely want to do a good job and want to keep their communities safe.

The problem is that their bosses are the ones who feel the need to control everything, and, to keep their jobs, police officers have to sometimes do things that they find objectionable. Now, if this means abusing people because their bosses insist on it, I’m not sure that we can let that officer off the hook in the blame, but, if police officers have to enforce a law which they disagree with, who is to blame when that law is enforced? I saw it is the legislature and the administration making the officers do their dirty work.

For example, take marijuana laws. Regardless of your position on the legalization of marijuana in some parts of the country, it seems pretty clear that the war on drugs has become an excuse to justify increasing militarization of the police and to control the population. And, frankly, a Pew Research Center survey of 8.000 law enforcement officers revealed that only about 1/3 of those officers surveyed want to keep cannabis illegal, with the other 2/3 about evenly split between supporting cannabis being legal for only medical use and being legal for recreational use in the same way that alcohol currently is legal for recreational use.

Now, understand, my point here is not to argue for or against legalization of marijuana. My point is that, even though 2/3 of police officers support legalization of marijuana, they will still throw you in jail because they want to keep their jobs.

This all points to the root of the problem: we live in a society which is run by people who are removed from the everyday effects of their decisions, administrators with very little accountability (relatively speaking) and incumbent legislators who have an unfair advantage over challengers when it comes to staying in office (if you don’t believe me, read The Dictator’s Handbook. It’s hard to argue when you see the facts.).

If you want to change our country away from it’s collision course with a police state (and we’re almost if not already completely there), it comes down to taking back our power to choose from administrators and from legislators using every legal and peaceful mean available.

How do you plan on regaining your power from government? Comment below.

Tags
View Comments (1,289)