Why the Police should be disarmed

Why the Police should be disarmed

The use of guns by the Police has always been a topic of discussion in many countries. There many legislators and citizens who believe that the Police need protection in their daily attempts to make sure that criminals and other lawbreakers are dealt with using whatever means possible. This paper presents different reasons why the Police should be completely disarmed. The intention to arm them in the first place is in good faith, but it has led to far more problems than the good they were meant to bring in society. The police actions have been documented having been involved in such actions as mass killings, illegal arrests, corruption, sexual abuse, drug trafficking, assassination among other ills that are presented in this paper to support the disarmament.

When all the monopoly is left in the hands of the Police, there is bound to be anarchy. Research has shown that Police are far more dangerous than terrorists (Worder, 2015). Similarly, it has been observed that a person is eight times more likely to be killed by a bullet from the Police compared to being killed by a terrorist. This is a good reason that should inform most states to make sure that the Police are disarmed and everybody armor that they carry taken away from them. If indeed, the Police are friends of the common citizens with the responsibility to serve and protect, then they do not need a weapon for such a task. Friendship with the citizens is enough to make them cooperate with the Police in solving whatever crimes that the Police may wish to address.

If history is anything to go by, the Police should have been disarmed a long time ago. A look at the facts that have been documented for the past one hundred years shows that the Police have committed the highest number of atrocities and killings when compared to terrorists (Reiss, 2018). This is an indication that as long as the Police are armed, a person is more likely to die from their bullet more than any other criminals’ weapon. Most people argue that we would not be having the Police if it were not for the presence of criminals in our society. On the contrary, there are indications that the Police have contributed to the increased number of criminals we have in society (Cruz, 2015). Imagine a situation where the Police shoot a mother in front of her child. Psychologist have documented that such an occurrence will remain in the mind of the child for a long time in their lives. If the law never takes its course and the police officer brought to book, such a kid will grow up hating the system and the Police. The child is more likely to resent the Police and the services that they offer, and the hatred can transform into feelings for revenge. An innocent child will grow up and end up being a terrorist just because of the pain of growing without a parent or parents for that matter.

Many governments have learned to turn a blind eye to the activities of the Police. Furthermore, they have made legislations that motivate the Police to torture their victims in the name of getting information that is threatening the well-being of the State. For instance, American soldiers have been documented for having murdered many citizens from Iraq (Sanford, 2015). During their operations, there have been many reported cases of women and children being brutalized by the central intelligence agency looking for weapons of mass destruction. They use any means possible to get the information and torture is one of the most common resorts that is used (Reiss, 2015). All these documented incidents have the signature of the governments that serve at the behest of the citizens. The Police follow the orders from “above” with no questions asked. The government is supposed to protect its citizens. However, in the process, it has created beasts in the name of the Police.

The most unfortunate outcome is the fact that all the atrocities that they commit never stop at the foreign countries where the operations take place, the same Police turn on the very citizens that they are supposed to protect for. One of the policies that haunts all the United States citizens for instance is the National Defense Authorization Act (Weitzer, 2015). This act allows the Police to use “enhanced interrogation techniques” on all the American citizens. Whatever name they may give it, enhanced techniques here can only refer to torture. This provides room for extrajudicial killings without any due process or oversight. Execution has been normalized, and the law allows it (Weitzer, 2015). The notion that a person is innocent until they are proven guilty no longer works. The Police have their law, and it takes precedence before the laws of the judiciary are effected. If the government legislators cannot protect their citizens, how do they expect the Police to act in a manner that is cognizant of the law? If I were to make a stand, I would say with finality that the government and the police work in cahoots and the deaths that are associated with the Police should land squarely at the doorstep of the government.

The Police also use the National Defense Authorization Act to hold innocent citizens incommunicado in secret prisons. This is against the 8th Amendment (Sanford, 2015). The Police exercise authority on innocent citizens and accuse others falsely in a bid to ensure that they are held behind bars. It is easier to be branded a terrorist by the Police even when you cannot tell what the term terrorism means! Labelling innocent citizens rebels is inhuman and goes against the spirit of justice. Unfortunately, under these circumstances, the Police carry the day as the innocent continue suffering.

There are many private security agencies in the world today. Surprisingly, most of the private security agents may not carry firearms. Night security guards who stand at the gates risk their lives throughout the night with only their clubs and whistles as the weapons of protection. These officers do their jobs diligently and with utmost honesty that no harm comes to them, and if it does, they end up dead while the police officers are the comfort of their stations. The only difference between these two categories of officers is that one is harmed with a crude weapon while the other is harmless. Yet the person armed kills people at will by and disregards the law.

The Police are also accused of using their weapons to commit crimes. There are many reported cases of the police systems which contain rogue police officers who work with criminals to terrorize innocent citizens and take part in drug trafficking (Albrecht, 2017). When this happens, there is bound to be disorder. There are many drug Lords who are willing protect their business at all costs. The involvement of the Police in business like these constitutes a conflict of interests because whenever the factions fight and deaths occur, the Police lack the moral authority to carry out investigations (Worder, 2015). Since they are armed, the Police in some countries has been found guilty of giving out their guns to criminals who use them to commit crimes such as robberies. This is a clear indication of the wrong use that the weapons that they carry are used for. Disarming the Police is the best way that such activities can be avoided.

Assassinations in the past in many countries have been found to have the hand of the Police in them (Sanford. 2015). It is, therefore, wrong to say that the Police are protectors of the innocent citizens of the states that they serve. The Police are always used by politicians in most governments to pursue political agenda. Any citizen who holds contrary opinions is dealt with in the vengeance of a criminal. There are many cases where innocent citizens are framed for fabricated crimes just because they do not support the system. Ironically, the Police are also used in the collection of evidence for the very crimes that their colleagues perpetrate (Albrecht, 2017). The result is the fabrication of evidence and forging of evidence to show that someone else committed the crime. The Police also use all manner of intimidation to make sure that false witnesses are lined up to testify against innocent people implicated in imaginary crimes.

The second amendment in the United States allows all the citizens to own arms so that they can use them to protect themselves. This is a welcome idea, and that should be a reason even to phase out the Police. The police service forms part of the civil service. Civil servants are always paid by money that comes from taxpayers. It is a waste of money to have taxpayers toil so hard in paying taxes to officers who are out to kill and maim them. Unfortunately, the Police are offered the most sophisticated weapons such as MQ9s and Kalashnikov Ak-12s (Cruz, 2015). These are powerful weapons akin to those that are owned by the military. The citizens even with the second amendment in place are still powerless. If everyone is to own a weapon, then the ground should be level for everyone. The Police and the citizens that they purport to protect should have equal rights (Reiss, 2015). If the ground is leveled, then there would be no police service, and the much funding that is directed to their services should be diverted into different matters of great importance.

Indeed not all the police officers are as brutal as already argued. The problem with the so-called innocent officers is the fact that when all the atrocities are taking place, they do nothing to stop them or at least ensure that they never happen again. This is a bad way of standing for injustice. As officers who believe in the rule of law, they should make sure they make the others the sense of respecting the rule of law. As officers, they should remember that they are parents, brothers, uncles, and members of the societies where they come from. Society has a way of judging its citizens and civil servants. Similarly, it is essential to note that there are cases where the Police have been provoked into shooting, but shooting unarmed citizens has no excuse irrespective of provocation that one may be drawn into. Even as I firmly believe they should be reprimanded for the ills recorded thus far, we should note the harsh conditions that they bear in their daily service to protect innocent citizens. We should note the sacrifice they make by offering the services that they do while we stay in the comfort of our homes. Sometimes err is to humans. Instead of being so critical, we should try to find out why they act the way they do because before they enter the police force, they are as caring as we all are.

In conclusion, it is worth saying that all evidence shows that the Police are the most brutal force we have on the planet. They have been involved in many gruesome murders in history and most of them have warrant no excuse. It is the responsibility of different governments to protect their citizens, but unfortunately, they perpetuate and support the Police in the commitment of the crimes. To level the ground for all citizens and make the police friends with their citizens, they should be disarmed. Police officers are civil servants paid by their citizens. Since arming them costs huge funds, disarming them helps in ensuring that money is saved and diverted to essential sectors of the economy. Body cameras are no solution to police brutality.