Our growing problem with the police

My memory fails me as I age, but if I remember correctly, it was during the Reagan administration when the country went crazy over crime. Huge sums of government spending were doled out to local police departments to increase hiring, new prisons were built and we began the long crusade to become the biggest jailer in the world. The U.S., I have read recently, now has the most people in prison of any country in the world - both in actual numbers and as a per capita figure.

Out of necessity, police departments had to dig deeper into the pool of applicants in order to find people to do the job. Although it pays a middle class wage, it is NOT a job in which you will get rich so the pool of candidates is somewhat limited in talent and quality.

Since 9/11/2001, the distribution of huge sums of money in the name of national security has given local police departments even MORE cash to throw around, and so we see the proliferation of militarily armed SWAT teams even in mid-sized cities, and if you're going to have a SWAT team, you've got to have a reason to deploy them. And so we send teams of militarized police with tank-like equipment, machine guns, and heavy-duty armor into quiet neighborhoods for something as small and routine as a minor drug bust.

Is it any wonder that innocent people get hurt, law abiding citizens get frightened, and that we trust the police a whole lot less today than we did just a few decades ago? It seems like the whole country is going nuts.

Here's a piece to reinforce my perceptions.

Lax Background Checks On Law Enforcement Contribute To Innocent Shooting (Click on this heading to read more)

 

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department hired dozens of officers even though background investigators found they had committed serious misconduct on or off duty, sheriff's files show.

The department made the hires in 2010 after taking over patrols of parks and government buildings from a little-known L.A. County police force. Officers from that agency were given first shot at new jobs with the Sheriff's Department. Investigators gave them lie detector tests and delved into their employment records and personal lives.

Serious misconduct found in these background check in a big city? A city that has thousands of applications every year? It's bound to happen. But here's one example that could be endemic to police thinking:

David McDonald was hired despite admitting to sheriff's investigators he had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl whom he  kissed and groped. He was 28 at the time.

McDonald had been fired from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department amid allegations he used excessive force on prisoners. A fellow deputy told a supervisor that he didn't want to work with McDonald because he harassed inmates.

So committing sexual assault on a minor with an age difference of 14 years (there's three major felony crimes there alone) wasn't enough to get him disqualified?

This is where the problems are cultivating. The police must do a better job of policing their own. They must be like Hebrew National Hot Dogs -- "We report to a higher authority."

When they turn their back on major crimes within the ranks and let those people patrol us, aren't they contributing toward the further abuse for which this officer was finally dismissed?

Ultimately, about 280 county officers were given jobs, including applicants who had accidentally fired their weapons,  had sex at work and solicited prostitutes, the records show.