Ferguson in Nevada

The furor over the shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old black man in Ferguson, Missouri, by a white police officer has sparked a national debate over the militarization of the police. The progressive left and the libertarian right flanks of the parties are coalescing in agreement and demanding the police be de-militarized. This alliance is beginning to crack open fault lines in both major party establishments. Could there be a major realignment soon?

The Washoe County Sheriff’s Department has a small SWAT team, and Sparks Police has a part-time SWAT presence. Reno PD openly proclaims it practices community policing. Las Vegas Metro has the worst reputation for police overreaction in Nevada, and it is currently under Department of Justice oversight to change its culture to community policing. Former San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara on the left, and constitutionalist Sheriff Richard Mack from the right, work to reform police practices by emphasizing community involvement by police officers and their role as “peace officers” rather than “law enforcement officers.”

The tragic death of Michael Brown shows that there is still a long way to go. Why did officer Wilson harass Brown for jaywalking on an empty street? Why did he believe the threat posed by the unarmed Brown was so imminent he had to shoot at him 10 times? And why was the over the top use of tear gas, rubber bullets, military-style camouflage uniforms, and other shocking instances of police overreaction to the demonstrators such standard procedure?

That the Pentagon freely gives heavy military equipment to local police forces is in large part to blame, but there is more to it. As Sen. Rand Paul has said, if a policeman told him to get back on the sidewalk, he might have lipped off, but wouldn’t expect to die for it. Conservative Sean Hannity, a concealed-carry enthusiast, showed his ignorance by saying if the police stopped him he would pull up his shirt to show he had a legal gun on his waist. Doesn’t he know if he was black, that action alone would likely be met with a hail of police gunfire? Would a white man killed by a black police officer be allowed to bleed out, uncovered on the street, for more than four hours?

Sen. Dean Heller (R) says he stands with Paul and opposes police militarization. Sen. Harry Reid (D) says he supports the militarization with more “oversight.” The War on Drugs, the overreaction to 9-11, and “broken window” police tactics have gotten us here. But there is much more to it.

Local governments have got to tell their police departments, as Davis in California just did, to return the MRAPs (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) to the Pentagon. And they have to stop the use of SWAT teams to serve ordinary search warrants and stop no-knock raids on non-violent suspected drug dealers. Conservative reformers have to regard the police unions with the same skeptical eye they reserve for teacher’s unions. We all have to acknowledge that the problem is much deeper than a few bad apples. The entire barrel is spoiled. That is not to say there are no good cops. What is rotten is the systemic unaccountability, poor training, us-against-them mentality, and outsized deference police commonly demand. You can’t shoot to kill low-level threats in the name of “officer safety,” and then proclaim constantly how heroic you are. We need more Republicans to take the Bill of Rights seriously, and more Democrats to stand up to the big city Democrat machines, so together we can restore peace and justice to our streets.