What the Over-Militarization of Our Police Departments Have Wrought

I have no reaction to this story but near-blinding rage. I don’t even know how to excerpt the links I have, so let me give you the short version of the story. On May 5, a police SWAT team in Arizona killed Jose Guerena, a former Marine who had recently wrapped up two tours in Iraq. The officers fired 71 shots at Guerena, who was asleep in his bedroom as the time of the raid, and prevented medical personnel from treating him as he lay dying for well over an hour.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Office, led by the incompetent and possibly dishonest Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, has substantially changed its story about the raid at least twice and, at this point, we have no reason to believe any statement from the department is true.

This incident simply should not have happened, regardless of whether police found any illegal items in Guerena’s house or not. Police officers are not soldiers and it is absolute folly for us to expect them to act as such. Enforcing the law and killing an enemy are entirely different tasks that require entirely different mindsets, and entirely different rules. I can’t imagine any way that a police officer can get enough training to be both competent and responsible at both jobs. There simply aren’t enough hours in the week.

We have to rein in our police departments. We simply demand more from them than they can ever deliver and their reaction to our demands has been over-militarization and far too many needless deaths. There’s a reason we have a Second Amendment, folks. It’s high time we took responsibility for our own safety and backed our police officers down a few notches.

UPDATE: Edited the part where I wrote he lay on his front lawn. I misread part of a statement made by Guerena’s wife.

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Tags: Law Enforcement, Nanny State

Category: Law and Order