by Ian Tartt
Police brutality is something everyone agrees is a problem, whether they think it happens frequently or rarely. The following article offers some possible solutions to reducing the problem.
- End the War on Drugs and other victimless crimes
The simplest way to reduce police brutality is to reduce the frequency with which a cop interacts with a civilian. And the best way to reduce that frequency is to repeal all laws that create victimless “crimes”. The greatest example of this is the War on Drugs. Not only would ending the War on Drugs result in virtually no arrests, home or vehicle invasions, or shootings from police to civilians, it would also take power and profit away from drug cartels, including those who come across the Mexican border. Ending drug prohibition would tremendously reduce the massive amount of violence in the U.S. caused by drug cartels. Further, many people who end up in prison due to being caught using, selling, or possessing illegal drugs and are later released find it impossible to get a job or finish their higher education. Faced with a lifetime as a convicted felon with few prospects for success, many of them turn to violent crime to make ends meet. Thus, drug prohibition turns peaceful people into violent criminals, creating a cycle of violence in which crime and police aggression escalate endlessly unless prohibition ends. The same thing happened during the prohibition of alcohol. Organized crime arose due to the profit motive for selling alcohol, leading to deadly encounters between gangsters, police, and civilians. Only after Prohibition ended did violent crime decrease. The War on Drugs, the modern form of Prohibition, must also end, along with all other laws that create victimless crimes, so that violent crime can decrease once again. Less crime means fewer interactions between police and civilians, meaning fewer opportunities for brutality to occur. Further, police militarization has largely come about due to drug prohibition, making encounters between police and civilians more likely to end in a severe injury or fatality. The increase in body armor, weapons, and tactics used is not merely to confront violent cartels or gangs either, as far too many people have learned firsthand by having their doors kicked in late at night, flashbang grenades being thrown into playpens, and innocent people being shot. Even worse is the fact that many times, police committing these atrocities have arrived at the wrong houses; they thought they were at a drug dealer’s house when in reality they just terrorized an innocent family. Any person of conscience should call for an end to these horrific violations, and ending the War on Drugs is the first step in that direction.
2. Fix police training
Contrary to popular belief, the police are not in place to preserve peace, keep violent criminals off the streets, or maintain order. The primary purpose of the police is to enforce the laws. Many times, that results in the above benefits, but those are secondary to their main job. The fact that nobody knows how many federal laws are on the books or what those laws criminalize means anybody could be breaking the law at any time without realizing it. Consider too that those federal laws are added onto existing state and local laws, making it quite a burden for anybody to truly be a law-abiding citizen, and for police to know who to target and who to ignore. Although repealing laws that create victimless crimes would reduce encounters between police and civilians, as well as demilitarizing the police, there would still be a chance for brutality in the interactions that would continue to happen. To minimize these risks, police training should be retooled to focus more on alternatives to the “shoot first and ask questions later” style that so many cops are taught, as well as reminding them that modern police are far safer than they’ve been through most of American history. These changes will lead to fewer police being afraid that every other person they see is going to kill them, causing them to use tactics intended to deescalate hostile situations rather than being so quick to use deadly force when other options are viable.
3. Privatize the police
A third step that most likely will not be taken but could reduce police brutality to almost zero is to privatize the police. Why are there so many complaints about cops who clearly used excessive force yet were either found not guilty or were given paid leave instead of a prison sentence? Quite simply, it’s due to the nature of the police. For the police to exist as a government institution, there has to be greater protection for the actions of the police. Ordinary citizens are only legally capable of defending themselves or others from violence and notifying the police of a law being broken. Police are given a great deal of leeway in their use of violence due to their role in enforcing the laws, including using physical and sometimes lethal force. They can use at their discretion tear gas, stun grenades, protective body armor, armored vehicles, trained animals, and specialized tactics that ordinary citizens cannot use. Since they are given much greater allowance in the equipment and tactics they can use, they must also necessarily have greater legal protection than the average person. They are also part of a monopoly of violence, and as such face no competition for their services. Their special protections and lack of competition mean they can get away with things that no private service ever could. Nobody would expect McDonald’s to properly investigate its food for health risks or be honest about the findings of a problem. Yet this is effectively the case with the police being investigated and reprimanded by the very government of which they are a part. McDonald’s can lose competition though to other fast food restaurants if a problem is found. For the police to truly be accountable to the people, for the majority of the abuses to stop, and for violence in this country to decline, police privatization is something to be considered. But even if it is ignored, repeal of laws that create victimless crimes and different training for police will certainly help create a much more peaceful and free society.