The Keystone Kops Delta Force

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This past week has been a slammed one for me, and so I had gotten behind on my current events. I was vaguely aware of the fact that trouble had erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, but that was about the extent of it. Having just now gotten somewhat abreast of affairs, I wanted to make just a few comments in descending order of importance.

First, few things are more obnoxious to me than militarized police. Competent police departments that have militarized are a far greater threat to us than the evils they purport to protect us from. And incompetent police departments that militarize . . . well, we don’t really gain much from a mashup of the Keystone Kops and the Delta Force, do we? We need to use this occasion, and any other like it, to demand a demilitarization of our police forces. We don’t need it. We don’t want it. Go away.

If I didn’t like it when the Bureau of Cows brought in their armored units to face down Cliven Bundy in Nevada, and I didn’t, I don’t like it any better when the same kind of thing is done to protesting blacks in Missouri. Further — if I may be a little provocative, why not? — I wish the protesters in this situation were as well-armed as Bundy’s friends were. I believe that if they had been as well-armed, we might have seen a lot less conflict here.

Second, pushing a different direction for a minute, indiscriminate rioting of this kind is simply an exercise in fouling your own nest. Protests against the police are of course fully in order — and from the initial reports of what went down, more than in order. Public pressure is entirely a good thing — it will help ensure that a full and complete investigation of the circumstances leading up to Michael Brown’s death.

But looting the 7-11 indicates that more than one motive might be involved in all this, and we should all know enough about the world to know that when we get to the looting part of this gaudy show, justice for Michael Brown has nothing to do with it. Ferguson is two/thirds black, which means that the odds are pretty good, when the rioting is all done, that blacks will have done ten times more harm to other blacks than the cops did. And speaking of that, it might be a good time to mention that shop owners with a robust understanding of the Second Amendment are in a position to keep themselves from being wronged in a time when the police are in no position to keep them from being wronged. This is true regardless of the race of the rioter and the race of the merchant. Meum and tuum know no color.

Here is the irony. It is the assigned task of the police department to protect and defend shopkeepers who had nothing whatever to do with the incident that resulted in Michael Brown’s death. But because of their handling of the whole thing, and looking instead like they are on the verge of liberating Kuwait, they are in no position to do so.

And last, we have courts for a reason.“For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion” (Acts 19:40, ESV). The disorder in the streets is not only a bad substitute for justice right now, it is also something that will actively get in the way of justice down the road. The policeman involved, whose name has been withheld, either has additional information which will throw the whole thing in a completely different light (Prov. 18:17), or he does not. If he does not, then the investigation and trial should be pretty straightforward. But if he does, then both the rioting and the blundering reaction by the authorities will make it awfully difficult for him to make that case.

And that is a shame because no one should ever have to mount a defense with one nervous eye on a mob. And neither should he have to make his case after the authorities have done a series of things calculated to make him look like he was spending all this time in a back room, cooking up a story that might fly.

In short, this has been a bad business all around.

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jigawatt
jigawatt
10 years ago

Word here in St. Louis is that some (maybe most) of the rioters and troublemakers are from places other than Ferguson. Some from other STL areas, and others from as far away as Texas.

Dave Matre
Dave Matre
10 years ago

When calling for the demilitarization of the police, do you mean the arms brought to bear in a given situation or limiting what arms police departments have? In California, where my brother-in-law recently retired as a cop, they didn’t carry AR-15s in their vehicles until after an LA robbery where the cops were outgunned by the robbers and wound up borrowing rifles from a local gun store. I understand the concern, though I don’t want to handicap those sworn to serve and protect.

J
J
10 years ago

@Dave Matre, I think your’s is a good question to ask. Many people make no distinction when they are calling for “demilitarization” of our police forces. The problem is sandwiched in though and it doesn’t make it easy to discern what the root of the matter is. I watched videos of what was going on in Missouri with disgust over the way the police there were posturing. As I thought over the matter I realized that I have no problem with cops dressing like military or gearing up like military. What I have a problem with is their posturing. They… Read more »

David Smith
David Smith
10 years ago

@J and Dave Matre: I appreciated what you both wrote. Like you, I have family and friends here in local police and sheriff departments, and I darned sure want them to have the equipment necessary to defend fellow citizens and themselves. The long term, bottom line fix for this, however, is we-the-people within our local communities re-assuming our responsibilities for the defense of ourselves, our families, and those same communities. I’d much prefer to see a well armed citizenry, thus dramatically decreasing any need, merely perceived or otherwise, for the police to have up-armor HMMV guntrucks, personnel carriers, tricked-out M4’s,… Read more »

Gabriel Rench
Gabriel Rench
10 years ago

Basketball player Gilbert Arenas has some truth/echo to add here: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Sports/2014/08/14/Gilbert-Arenas-Rips-Sharpton-Black-Community

PB
PB
10 years ago

If you think that fully arming the protesters in Ferguson would have resulted in less conflict, I think you misunderstand the nature of the tension that exists. The protesters at the Bundy ranch were not the same type of crowd that has gathered in the streets of Ferguson.

Allen
Allen
10 years ago

SWAT teams were first created, in part, as a response to the Watts riots.

J
J
10 years ago

I will grant most happily that the type of protesters are not the same in Missouri as the ones at the Bundy ranch. A point that should not be forgotten though is that the type of opposition to both of those groups is exactly the same.

Chris
Chris
10 years ago

New evidence has come out that the guy charged the cops. I think the bigger issue is addressing why people jumped to racist conclusions and decided they should protest at all, let alone riot.

I don’t know if the cops should be de-militarized. But, I do think if the police are supposed to be a civilian police, then normal civilians should have and police civilians should have rights/access to the same tools.

PB
PB
10 years ago

@J: My comment was directed at Doug’s post, not your response. I agree with the content of your original post although I would suggest that the problem you address is limited. It is important, when discussing this type of issue, to be mindful of the distinction between local law enforcement and federal law enforcement. Believe it or not, those two are often at odds and do not always operate with the same motives. If , in your second post, you were commenting on the police response in opposing to the protest, you have not made that distinction. The opposition to… Read more »

Jonathan
Jonathan
10 years ago

Chris, at least one of the officer’s shots was fired from within the police car, the fatal shots were fired when the victim was 35 feet from the police car, and three independent witnesses with names on record verified the same “hands up and surrendering” story. If there’s evidence that he was charging the cops, it has to mesh in with some strong evidence that looks like he was not. Pastor Wilson and the other commenters – thank you much for this post and your comments. I am bothered by what I have heard of the initial action, but I… Read more »