Watching the latest sad nonsense from Baltimore, it occurred to me that this sort of progressive street unrest + thuggish, out of control cops is the usual fictive predecessor to the establishment of a national police force - the “USPF” of a dozen cheesy sf novels and movies. And a little chill ran down my back.
Is it possible that this spreading distrust of city-run police forces and deepening civil response to each incident will lead to a “nationalization” of police in the US? That the increasing ties between the military, military providers, police training in military-style tactics and thinking and the “bad apple” personnel, precincts and departments will crest over into a unified police system, run at a federal (or effectively federal “state association”) level… all for our own good and better public safety, of course?
I believe that aberrations like the recent string of deaths at police hands and resulting spikes in public response (which are not always keyed to the reality of the event) tend to be self-correcting. But I can easily see a few more such incidents, especially one or two really explosive, destructive ones with significant death tolls - say, this coming hot summer - leading to just that kind of benevolent, modern-thinking, out-with-the-old “fix.”
Plenty of countries have national police forces, including countries just as free and democratic as the U.S. It won’t happen, but even if it does, it’s wouldn’t be that bad a thing.
For every urban center that has these major riots, there are countless smaller communities that have no problem with their local police forces. I wouldn’t see this going over too well with them. I’m from the St. Louis area, and even after the Ferguson riots there are still plenty of communities even within 5 minutes of St. Louis City that are fine with their police.
We’ve hada national police force for over a century now, albeit one of limited jurisdiction.
Nationalizing all the various municipal and state police forces across the nation might pass Constitutional muster, but I can’t see it happening from a practical standpoint in a day and age where a significant faction of the people believe that every new expansion of federal power is the sign that the UN is going to swoop in and take everyone’s guns and make kids pledge allegiance to ISIS and declare gay marriage mandatory.
Pretty much this. It’s the problem with all of these threads. A few incidents happen (in a country with literally millions of police officers and hundreds of millions of citizens) and suddenly it’s a major issue across the entire country needing radical and draconian solutions. The thing is, these things grab headlines because they are so outside the norm. If they were actually happening all the time and everywhere it wouldn’t be news, it would simply fade into the background noise.
We certainly have issues in this country, and I think the last few years have brought up the fact that race relations have a long way to go in the US still, even though we have made great strides in my own lifetime. But we have a long way still to go, obviously. But I don’t think we are on the verge of or really NEED a nationalized SF type police force to solve all our problems (I don’t see how it would or could solve the root causes of the issues regardless).
There are some 25,000 cities in the U.S.A… How many of them are currently experiencing unrest, rioting, looting, arson, and terrorism? Two? Three? A dozen?
I don’t see a need for an USPF. We already have the FBI, BATFE, U.S. Marshals Service, DHS, ICE, etc., which, when they cooperate, act as a USPF.
I, for one, say we just establish an order of motorcycle-riding street judges with the authority to summarily try and convict anyone they witness committing a crime.
How about the law applying equally to police officers? That would go along way towards fixing the current issues.
As long as officers caught dead to rights still regularly avoid indictment, it won’t matter if they have a body cam, there’s community outreach, seminars, retraining, or even a *national *police force.
I only ask, “Is even one politician anywhere advocating for this?” because the OP seemed concerned about something that no one anywhere is advocating. How about we debate the problems of unicorn immigration as well?
To establish a national police force would require an act of Congress. Which Senators are advocating establishing a national police force? Are the Koch brothers in favor? How about the talking heads on Fox News? Corporate lobbyists?
Nobody who is rich and powerful is worried about a few slum neighborhoods being destroyed by riots. If the rioters were looting and pillaging the upscale neighborhoods, then they’d worry. Except even if there was civil unrest of that sort, the local upscale neighborhood cops would handle it. Even if the Koch brothers were worried about slum neighborhoods being destroyed, why would they advocate a national police force as a solution?
