dc_dux

Its not just the fact that you point out isolated examples of improper police or judicial conduct. What many find unreasonable is that you characterize these isolated examples as "huge breaches of authority" with a sweeping condemnation of law enforcement as well as your proposed solution of arming the populace rather than correcting the criminal justice system.


I looked at your map and using your state of Texas as an example, there were 25 incidents in 20 years (since 1985) of what Cato Institute calls "botched paramilitary police raids" (an interesting if not incendiary description).....thats 1.25/year.

To put it into perspective, there were over 1 million arrests in Texas in 2005 (FBI crime figures) and from the Cato examples, there would be an average of 1.25 "botched police raids" (the actual number for that year was zero).

Of those 25 incidents in Texas over the 20 year period, 5 resulted in the death of an innocent person....thats one every 4 years. (I'm not minimizing the tragedy of one killing every 4 years). None of these should happen, but those numbers do not represent "huge" or pervasive systemic breaches of authority.

I dont condone the excessive use of force or killing of innocent civilians. Every incident should be investigated by authorities or civilian review boards and legal action taken against police officers if the evidence suggests so.

But I would still say its a figment of your imagination for you to suggest it is more that a rare occurrence. You obviously dont want to accept the fact that 1.6% (DoJ figures) of all police-public interaction represents a rare occurrence or isolated incident.

And more to the point, the solution is not vigilantism and arming the public.

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