"How did we get here? How did we evolve from a country whose founding statesmen were adamant about the dangers of armed, standing government forces–a country that enshrined the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights and revered and protected the age-old notion that the home is a place of privacy and sanctuary–to a country where it has become acceptable for armed government agents dressed in battle garb to storm private homes in the middle of the night–not to apprehend violent fugitives or thwart terrorist attacks, but to enforce laws against nonviolent, consensual activities? How did a country pushed into a revolution by protest and political speech become one where protests are met with ļ¬ash grenades, pepper spray and platoons of riot teams dressed like RoboCops? How did we go from a system in which laws were enforced by the citizens–often with non-coercive methods–to one in which order is preserved by armed government agents too often conditioned to see streets and neighborhoods as battleļ¬elds and the citizens they serve as the enemy?"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Radley Balko, "How did Americaās police become a military force on the streets?" (1 July 2013), American Bar Association Journal.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_the_United_States
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Law enforcement in the United States
62 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Law enforcement in the United States ā
Related Quotes
"Bad cops are the product of bad policy. And policy is ultimately made by politicians. A bad system loaded with bad inā¦"
"If even the earliest attempts at centralized police forces would have alarmed the founders, today's policing would haā¦"
"We are trying to help; we are trying to help reduce the violence in Baltimore city. It is a hard, hard game. Hard gamā¦"
"Yet in 1992, a year after the King beating, an LAPD survey indicated that 92 percent of officers believed they shouldā¦"
"Too many of our citizens have cause to doubt our nationās justice when the law points a finger of suspicion at groupsā¦"
"Every officer has accepted a calling that sets them apart. Most of us imagine, if the moment called for it, that we wā¦"
"Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor for the US Department of Justice, professor at Georgetown University Law Cenā¦"
"According to Butler, Black men who face constant police intervention handle it in two different ways. In both instancā¦"
"We are pretty free in America when you compare us to other nations around the world, but we're not pretty free in Ameā¦"
"Fuck the police comin' straight from the underground A young nigga got it bad 'cause I'm brown And not the other coloā¦"