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Protect and Serve?
September 30, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
Some of the recent posts here have been related to the actions of police at the Democratic and Republican conventions. At both events, the police stopped protests in an attempt to eliminate any evidence of dissent. Many of us believe that the police are here to “protect and serve.” This is true, but not in the way that most of us think. We would like to think that the police “protect and serve” the people – you and me. But really, the police act to “protect and serve” the established state and the ruling classes that control it.
While looking something to read a couple of weeks ago, I ran across Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America, by Kristian Williams. I’m only about halfway through the book now, but Williams is making the point that the police have, through American history, been used by the political and social ruling classes to control the lower classes. This is their primary purpose – everything else is there in an effort to legitimize their existence. Maybe once I finish the book, I’ll have more to say.
But since I have started reading this book, three news items have caught my attention. First, a South Carolina Sheriff’s department purchased an armored personnel carrier from the military (another short analysis here). Is there really a need for a sheriff’s department to have an armored vehicle with a .50-caliber machine gun? While the sheriff insists that it will “save lives” I’d like to know kind of threat they are facing in Richland County.
Next, take a look at recent covers of POLICE: The Law Enforcement Magazine. The title of the referenced post is “How cops see themselves.” Apparently, the armored vehicle isn’t that much of a stretch when police see themselves more as a military unit than as the friendly neighborhood patrol that the state sells to its subjects.
And finally, circling back to those protests in Denver, the Denver police have created a t-shirt to celebrate their role in restricting free speech and assembly.
The shirt reads, “We get up early to beat the crowds.” Of course, beat in this context refers to the physical beating of protesters by police. We can see from this that the police have no interest in protecting and serving anyone other than their masters – the state and the ruling classes. The common people, the lower classes, are nothing more than victims for their brutality.