flooding the streets of America with personal weapons arsenals.

Much civilian horrors

There are things they could do too.

On what we want them to do? Absolutely no doubt much has to change. But I was just starting with the obvious.

I think the entire system needs an overhaul. Just not sure, other than local prosecutors out of the picture in police brutality cases, what should be done at the state level

force, that is obvious by now. Watch how they 'police' Protests, see Ferguson and OWS eg.

And the daily murders of civilians is beyond words.

No civilized nation would tolerate these murders of civilians.

The militarization of the police must be ended also.

And Mercenaries returning from war zones should not be recruited to a Civilian Police Force.

Who is overseeing them?

We know that the DAs, the Mayors, both parties, the Governors, both parties, Prosecutors and elected officials are either totally supportive of their behavior or enable it.

They conduct internal investigations. They don't seem to be answerable to anyone. They are a law unto themselves, and if the people of Ferguson hadn't finally had enough, nothing would have changed at all.

So yes, the whole system of policing in this country needs to be completely overhauled, start all over again.

I have to go to sleep. I keep picking up my phone and looking at DU.

I completely agree with you. But how?

I will have to respond to whatever you might say tomorrow.

Thanks for your reply Sabrina.

Last edited Tue Apr 14, 2015, 08:20 AM - Edit history (1)

Sadly

Thank you for all the information. I appreciate it. It is like they're Rambo wannabes

In some significant ways our "protect and serve" police forces have become "assault and slaughter" occupation teams. Once the blue wall of silence was established the corruption of law enforcement was guaranteed. This isn't monetary corruption, it's a starker far more dangerous form of immortality. When accountability for those with the power of life and death is lost we are ALL in mortal straights. The idea of " I won't tell on you and you don't tell on me" emboldens the sociopath and handcuffs the righteous. The moment any peace officer over looks the illegal actions or rule violations of another officer he/she becomes equally stained, and irredeemable. Often this failure is far worse than the initiating action. Once you become an accessory to another's illegal or immoral actions you are forever in their thrall. You have given your honor to them and forfeit your loyalty to the oath and society whom you swore to defend. And you wonder why people throw rocks and fire bombs at you....you have become the enemy at the gates.

A bunch of make believe rambos.

Thanks for all the information

link
http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

It's got something to do with that old adage about honey and vinegar.

Obviously, not serious. I hope people will call but I would never demand anyone do anything

But it is just a joke.

Thanks got my attention

That was the point

Sabrina1 explains the subject line in post 27.

reaction to someone demanding rather than asking.

It has now become part of the culture of DU.

Definitely not a 'demand' but mocking people who 'demand' initially. The opposite, iow, of what you thought it was.

Oh well, I guess I will anywayz.

as an attempt to try to stop the hate. I'm trying to test out an idea of how we can start de escalating the hate and really let the enablers, perpetuators and perpetrators of the hate rampant these days at all levels of this culture, both social and political, ENOUGH! People are getting fed up with hate. Any idea(s) to stop the hate in the world would be appreciated. Stop the hate UFTW. flyers....anything to start fighting back against the RW hate machine.

I wish I could think of something. Please let me know how your experiment goes and what you do.

Whenever I think it may be impossible to change someone from hate to acceptance, I think about George Wallace, Sam Ervin and Robert Byrd.

Thank you for your reply and ideas

Thanks to yortsed snacilbuper in post 10, if you don't have the information for your Senators, here's a link to quickly get it

http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

Here's a link to find all your elected officials from Common Cause

http://act.commoncause.org/site/PageServer?pagename=sunlight_advocacy_list_page

our local police"? Do we need a bill to stop the military from giving or selling cheap used equipment? Can the President sign an executive order?

One thing I have thought of is contacting local police and discussing it with them. Our sheriff is elected and might be interested in listening to a bloc of voters.

I have also asked that local prosecutors not be allowed to be part of the indictment of police offenders and that all shootings by police of unarmed civilians be investigated by the DoJ. Additionally, the use of such equipment be limited to the National Guard though that's probably a state level issue.

frankly, i don't really know what to ask for at the state and local levels. I highly doubt a conversation with the Chicago cops will make a difference. If ever a police department didn't care, the CPD is high on that list. A settlement with the family of a 17 year old shot dead was offered yesterday. 5 million dollars. They refuse to release the video.

Maybe we should have a discussion here as to what the best course of action is. The system needs a complete overhaul

I agree local prosecutors shouldn't be allowed to decide on prosecution of police. I don't think that restricting it to the killing of "unarmed" citizens will work because of the common use of "throw-away" guns. Would all citizens shot by police be to burdensome?

I do think citizens need to form ombudsman type committees that meet with the mayors to discuss possible police over-reach. These multi-million dollar settlements comes out of the pocket of the taxpayers.

I will also ask my Congress-Critters for legislation to stop the sale or gift of military equipment to local police.

I will try to post something for a weekend discussion. More people should be around.

As an aside, I can't see your name without thinking about my mom. She has a masters in rhetoric.

Tell her hi from me.

Thank you!

If enough people call they will maybe give the issue a little more scrutiny, nice to see someone trying to do something about it.

governmental officials. Frankly, that will be more effective. Congress has very limited influence in local law enforcement, actually. And right now, with Republicans in the majority, not much reason to make any changes. You'll do better in your own city, county and state with this.

But the militarization of the police is federal. This has to be a target for change.

I plan to post this weekend to discuss what we want to try to do to overhaul at a local level. If we can come up with a strategy that would work, and all go to our local reps and police, maybe we can start something big