POLICE

More police shootings.  Lord, help us.  Here's a view from another angle.

Have our police departments started shooting first and asking questions later?  Is this a recent phenomena or are we just noticing it?  How did it get this way?

Like any of society's problems, there is no simple answer.  But here is an idea about the cause which may lead to a cure.

When I was a kid, police were controlled by the local community.  Andy and Barney kept Mayberry  in check according to the mores of the citizenry.  Everyone went along with that.  The town was mostly peaceful except when Otis drank too much - he was asked to sleep it off in the town jail. That's the way it was.  The police chief was an elected official.  If his force didn't do what the community expected, he was out.  Why has it changed?  I think it goes back to this.

There came a time when the nation thought that Lyndon Johnson's Great Society wasn't going to be great unless we could got rid of our drug problems.  So naturally, the liberal mindset called for the federal government to get involved.  Money would solve the problem.

Big money started coming from the feds to the local communities to help fight a war on drugs.  Not only money, but eventually the feds sent military-style weapons and equipment.  How could you fight a war without them?  Then, to the war on drugs the feds added the war on illegal immigrants.  More money sent to the cities!  Now, we have added the war on Muslim extremists.  More money sent to the cities.

The local police became very indebted to the feds.  As a thank you for all this money they received, they had to produce results.  The local police were now soldiers in the war.  Not only were they supposed to protect and serve, they were supposed to be the front-line fighters in this war.  They were all warriors.

Warriors kill.  Warriors accept collateral damage.  What did we expect?
*o*