Now, if this statement raises fantasies in your mind of androids that can deflect bullets and wield three Uzi's at the same time, then you will be very disappointed. I am talking about regular old human policemen, but here's the twist. They can only police other police.
A quick perusal of “police taser” on YouTube will show the need for some change in the way cops are supervised [see bottom of article]. In particular, the recent incident Manhattan of a black, plain-clothed police officer being shot three times by a white police officer in what can only be called cold blood says something very particular to me: that if Omar Edwards had not been a police officer, we would never have heard this story, and his killer would have gotten off Scot free. Well, maybe a few weeks paid leave while they sorted out whether his failure to say “stop, police!” was criminal or not. But then he'd be back on the streets, shooting first and asking questions later.
I appreciate the danger that cops have to deal with every day of their lives. Their work is tiresome, dangerous, and thankless, and they are certainly who I would call in an emergency. But danger is the job description. That's what they signed up for. And when they start cutting corners, especially corners easily cut like those that lead to an epidemic of blacks being pulled over at higher rates then whites, then those that are meant to defend us quickly become those that oppress us.
We cannot trust the police forces themselves to hold their officers to the letter of the law. It's not that it's impossible to find responsible departments who go after their own when the time comes. But its certainly decreases the likelihood. I'm simply proposing that the same checks-and-balances system that governs our branches of government be used to protect us from the abuses and corruptions seen so often in law enforcement, making the term “internal investigation” the joke that it is.
And so we need a new type of law enforcers. Men and women who are in the streets with regular police, but it would not be their job to police citizens. They would be there to hold police officers to the strict letter of the law. With zero responsibility for policing citizens and zero affiliation with the local police department, these “super cops” would know every law which is meant to protect citizens from abuses of power.
This will not go over well with the established police forces. They will fight this with ever fiber of their being and they will cry interference, endangerment, etc. But laws are there to be followed, and if we as citizens need to follow every rule, then surely must the cops. As concessions, super cops would not be able to carry weapons. They would have to always be in uniform—no undercover and no unmarked super cops. They would not have the right to arrest a regular police officers while they were in the field or interfere in any way. They would just take note of officers' actions and their badge numbers and then have the right to preform investigations of cases like that of Omar Edwards, shot down for holding a gun and being black.
Okay, fine. I'm willing to give up the name.
And now, for your entertainment:
