To preface this article, it is necessary to review some statistics that alone solidify the argument that the U.S. has become rampant with police state brutality and murder. In fact, the police, and mostly with complete immunity I might add, are killing American citizens every single day without provocation, without mercy and without conscience.
Just since the 1970s, militarized police raids, or violent SWAT raids, have increased by well over 200 fold. While there were a few hundred of these invasive violent raids per year in the 70s, about 3000 in 1980, and 45,000 by 2001, now there are over 80,000 annually. That means that over 200 times per day in America, a militarized SWAT raid is taking place. These figures come from John Whitehead, president of the The Rutherford Institute.
Much of what is happening in the U.S. at the hands of the cops is due to the militarization of police by the feds. Since the 80s and 90s, but especially since 9/11, this military arming of local and state police has become rampant. The police are no longer protectors of the citizenry, but a para-militarized occupying force similar to that of a military unit on the battlefield. This is dangerous beyond words, and the results speak volumes about the greatly intensified police brutality that is evident throughout this country.
As of this writing, American cops are murdering over 500 innocent citizens every year according to the U.S. Department of “Justice,” (USDOJ) so the actual number of innocent citizens killed by police each year could be much higher. But should this be unexpected given the growing numbers of police in this now almost total police state?
The size of police forces is growing out of control. According to John Whitehead, the larger cities have police forces “the size of small armies.” Not only that, but they are armed with automatic weapons, machine guns, armored vehicles, tanks and more. For example:
“the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has reached a total of 10,000 officers. It takes its place alongside other cities boasting increasingly large police forces, including New York (36,000 officers) and Chicago (13,400 officers). When considered in terms of cops per square mile, Los Angeles assigns a whopping 469 officers per square mile, followed by New York with 303 officers per square mile, and Chicago with 227 cops per square mile.”
At this pace, soon the police will outnumber the citizens it seems. Much of this growth of state terror is due to the heinous “war on drugs,” but given the equally heinous “war on terror,” and all the new restrictive laws on the books due to the war on drugs and terror, more and more state agents of force are taking to the streets dressed as police. The prisons are getting fuller, but most all prisoners today have harmed no one or their property, and in fact have been found guilty of a victimless crime. While this supports the fascist prison state, it is an abomination against the liberty of the individual.
Extreme police brutality has become the norm. Intimidation, beatings, imprisonment and murder are now common, everyday police practices, and the trend is getting much worse. The time for action is already upon us. There is little time to wait, as any and every encounter with police, regardless of how minor, could turn out to be fatal.
The police have virtually no rules and they are protected by the state and the state’s courts. This puts them above the law, and that attitude makes them more dangerous than is normally conceivable. The low quality of the individuals who now occupy positions on police forces, many who are coming back from murdering innocents overseas on orders from the military, and the low intelligence of these same individuals, makes for deadly confrontations.
While violent crime rates in the private sector are declining, violent crime by police is greatly increasing. Does that make any sense at all? It only makes sense if that is the desired effect sought by the state, and if that is the case, the state is expecting much worse in the future. It’s time to shut down police brutality, and that means its time to dramatically reduce the number of police, eliminate all military style equipment in police departments and disarm the rest. If the people of this country do not act quickly, unrestrained martial law will be the result!
“Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking for more compulsion and less freedom.” ~Ludwig von Mises