Re:In Wisconsin, a Decade-Old Police Shooting Leads to New Law
by biomcgary on Monday December 15, 2014 @03:54PM
(#8754388)
It does seem like a non sequitur that a country with the mindset "government is best which governs least" would routinely utilize SWAT teams. I'm curious about the social dynamic that transforms the desire for minimal government intervention to overkill in policing. I have a hard time believing that it is simply low expectations. Perhaps the low expectations exist because reform is structurally difficult (e.g., voting system, etc).
On the other hand, perhaps the situation is slow to change because it is exactly what the majority want? Only poor and minority populations interact with police regularly.
In the US, we are almost self-defeatingly cynical about the idea of good government. "That government is best which governs least" is a distinctly American motto. But I think we actually can expect more from our government, we just don't because we don't think it's possible. And so ironically we are stuck with a government that governs quite a lot, actually, and not that well.
Already in the US, standard search and arrest warrants are unnecessarily performed by heavily armed SWAT teams. Depending on where you live, you better not have any pets if the police come for you because they will kill them. If we disarmed ordinary patrol cops in the US, they would just not do anything and send SWAT to do all the real work.