Radley Balko
The last days of colonialism taught Americaâ€™s revolutionaries that soldiers in the streets bring conflict and tyranny. As a result, our country has generally worked to keep the military out of law enforcement. But according to investigative reporter Radley Balko, over the last several decades, Americaâ€™s cops have increasingly come to resemble ground troops. The consequences have been dire: the home is no longer a place of sanctuary, the Fourth Amendment has been gutted, and police today have been conditioned to see the citizens they serve as an otherâ€”an enemy.,Todayâ€™s armored-up policemen are a far cry from the constables of early America. The unrest of the 1960s brought about the invention of the SWAT unitâ€”which in turn led to the debut of military tactics in the ranks of police officers. Nixonâ€™s War on Drugs, Reaganâ€™s War on Poverty, Clintonâ€™s COPS program, the postâ€“9/11 security state under Bush and Obama: by degrees, each of these innovations expanded and empowered police forces, always at the expense of civil liberties. And these are just four among a slew of reckless programs.,In ,Rise of the Warrior Cop,, Balko shows how politiciansâ€™ ill-considered policies and relentless declarations of war against vague enemies like crime, drugs, and terror have blurred the distinction between cop and soldier. His fascinating, frightening narrative shows how over a generation, a creeping battlefield mentality has isolated and alienated American police officers and put them on a collision course with the values of a free society.
Nonfiction,Politics,History,Mystery,Crime,Sociology,Social Movements,Social Justice,North American Hi...,American History,Audiobook,War,Military Fiction,Law
Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces