5 ms·
We have to ask ourselves: where is the money? Our rights aren't being lost to a sprawling military-police state just because there's a Big-Brother wannabe consp
by sgaither 13y ago
We have to ask ourselves: where is the money? Our rights aren't being lost to a sprawling military-police state just because there's a Big-Brother wannabe conspiring to destroy the constitution. Police departments grow the same way our project departments grow in engineering companies: by managers arguing for bigger budgets and spending more, sometimes wastefully, to justify bigger budgets come next fiscal year.
These hyped-up (sometimes roided-up) SWAT teams do what they do to justify their existence....no manager wants to preside over a shrinking department. It takes a lot of thinking and long-term policy making to reduce this perverse yet basic economic incentive
- llamataboot 13y agoDon't forget all the war-on-terror funding and politics that have provided even rural police departments with armored personnel carriers and the like.[1] Or outfitting police departments with tons of equipment in advance of protests planned there which then filters down into daily use. In some cities, there is so little for the "anti-terror" cops to do that they have been conscripted into arresting drunk people and pot smokers.[2] 1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/12/police-militarization-9-11-september-11_n_955508.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/12/police-militarizati... 2) http://www.startribune.com/local/209811381.html http://www.startribune.com/local/209811381.html
- alex-g 13y agoThere's another side to that, which is that overfunding of the police is coupled to underfunding of other institutions; too many social issues are framed as law-enforcement problems, and tackled with a militarized version of the law enforcement mindset.
- timmaah 13y agoJust think of how fun the bottom 1/4 of the U.S. will be once the border patrol gets to double its numbers.
- gohrt 13y agoBottom in economic status, or Bottom as in South?
- greedo 13y agoA lot of the funding comes from seizures of cars, houses, cash, anything that can be grabbed. Then it's up to the citizen to "prove" it isn't ill-gotten goods.
- kabdib 13y agoSome of the money, in some areas, certainly. Any idea how much?
- greedo 13y agoI don't have any figures for local municipalities, but US Attorneys have been pretty prosperous. In 2010, the seizure total for the Feds was over $1 billion. http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/forfeiture http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/forfeiture EDIT This link is from 2008, but it seems to state that local governments get about $1 Billion/year also... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91490480 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9149048...
- gaius 13y agobecause there's a Big-Brother wannabe conspiring to destroy the constitution "Yes we scan"