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Five Schenectady police officers recently accused of everything from driving drunk to beating up a man are leading city officials to look at taking drastic action to fix a department tainted by the few who may have acted illegally...In the absence of a complete breakdown of order, there is no excuse--none--for calling out the troops to act as police. The military are not a constabulary force, however much the local donut-chasers may like to dress like Rambo. My sharpest memory of the L.A. riots in 1992 was the imagery of National Guardsmen on the streetcorners. After 9/11, they were in all the airports. Now we have a mayor considering calling them out because he's lost confidence in his local badge-wearers.
Mayor Stratton told us he's looking at all options, including disbanding the police department - basically starting over. Currently, officials are reviewing the legal options and planning to present a full report in early April - options like a consolidated county-wide police force or bringing in the State Police.The mayor said there is another option - and that would be declaring martial law. The governor would have to declare it and then the National Guard would come in. The mayor said it's more for a transition to a new police force if that were to happen.
Do we REALLY want Americans to become accustomed to having soldiers patrol their towns? Methinks the military is undergoing dangerous levels of mission creep in our society.
2 comments:
That makes two of us. I'm patiently waiting for the investigation in Alabama to conclude so they can explain why Ft. Rucker MPs were 35 miles from base on duty in what appeared to be a law enforcement activity.
All those patriotic folk there seem to think there wasn't anything wrong with the Army helping out. So I suspect there won't be a lot of emphasis on the 'investigation.'
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