The Rise of Police Brutality
by The author, a victim of violent police misconduct, observes a increase in the amount and severity of incidents of police brutality in recent years. Citing history, she questions the necessity of policing in a free United States of America.
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Since the attack on the World Trade Center in September 11, 2001 there has been an increase in police brutality across the United States. (See related article at USAToday.com.) Police departments are becoming increasingly militarized. Combat fatigued veterans, hardened by the realities of war, are returning from abroad and joining the ranks of the police. As police departments become increasingly corrupt, it becomes more difficult for them to recruit and retain decent people to wear their uniforms.
Homeland Security and Federal law enforcement agencies have been working closely with local police departments, as mentioned in this article from Canadian Free Press and elsewhere. This collusion has led to untold violations of human rights across the nation and the numbers are increasing. The victims are often silenced by threats, both direct and implied, particularly when they have no evidence of the terrible crimes committed against them, as is most often the case.
Those who live through police brutality and live to tell the tale are survivors. The rest become statistics and the subject of an overwhelming number of police brutality stories across the internet. The web has become a forum for people who have no other means to communicate what has happened to them or those they love at the hands of brutal police.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that police brutality cases are not just “isolated incidents” involving “a few bad apples.” As Frank Serpico tried to tell everyone, (Please, see CNN article, of September 3, 1997, “Serpico Resurrects His Decades-old Criticism of NYPD.”) organizations are corrupt from the top down. And, we see it again and again with remarkable cover ups of heinous crimes perpetrated by police across the country in which the perpetrators are promoted and the heads of departments go to great lengths to conceal officers crimes. These uniformed robbers, rapists, murderers and human traffickers flourish in their illegal activities while hiding behind their badges.
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