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Originally Posted by ITC444
More an more I am seeing hostility by the police toward citzens. I think this is a part of the increased emphasis on tactical training with less emphasis on serving the community.
Police have allways been isolated to some degree, in Urban environments they are allmost totally seperated from the communities they allegedly serve.
This isolation is not good for the Law enforcement community nor for the citzens they are sworn to protect.
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This is nothing new. It started with the advent of the police patrol car.
Officers used to walk a beat in large cities. This allowed them to actually speak to citizens every day, get to know the people in the area - shopkeepers, residents, customers and trouble makers. Putting them in cars to cover larger areas deprived them of this contact.
In the 70's, training began to include tactics and skills to keep you alive against the new breed of criminal -- radicals, crazy political groups and drug dealers. By the 90's, the police were more militarized than ever. Police brass loved the scenes of SWAT team dynamic raids on the news -- showing citizens their police were doing highly dangerous things to "protect the peepul". Now we have SWAT raids for misdemeanor warrants and unpaid student loans.
In the instant case, it would appear that the police failed in almost all their duties and responsibilities. Given the nature of the incident, his injuries and losses, an 8-figure settlement would not be inappropriate.