An elected police force?

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Check out the last graph of this one:

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-pol...asters-society

This is a radically liberal site that I've linked to. I've said here that I'm troubled by the mixing of partisan politics into law enforcement debates, because the preservation of the public's safety should be a nonpartisan issue IMO, there should also be an expectation that you folks will do your jobs evenhandedly and without political skew or bias, and my own politics can't be pigeonholed into an "either-or" slot. But when idiocy is served up on a tee like this, it's hard not to pull out the driver and take a swing at it ...

[Iowa #1603]

Check out the last graph of this one:

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-pol...asters-society

This is a radically liberal site that I've linked to. I've said here that I'm troubled by the mixing of partisan politics into law enforcement debates, because the preservation of the public's safety should be a nonpartisan issue IMO, there should also be an expectation that you folks will do your jobs evenhandedly and without political skew or bias, and my own politics can't be pigeonholed into an "either-or" slot. But when idiocy is served up on a tee like this, it's hard not to pull out the driver and take a swing at it ...

Bad idea


HOWEVER the Elected SHERIFF is the cornerstone of American policing. Some states even have Sheriff's mentioned in their constitution.

Much like the US Marshal (appointed by the POTUS) is the earliest and oldest Law Enforcement agency in the Federal Government, Sheriff's are normally likewise in state governments.

The tenet of this system is that the official is responsible to the people they serve and held accountable by the elecotrate directly rather than by representatives (such as being appointed by an elected official)

The actual members of the agency should be selected on merit and extensively trained in their duties rather than elected

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Bad idea


HOWEVER the Elected SHERIFF is the cornerstone of American policing. Some states even have Sheriff's mentioned in their constitution.

Much like the US Marshal (appointed by the POTUS) is the earliest and oldest Law Enforcement agency in the Federal Government, Sheriff's are normally likewise in state governments.

The tenet of this system is that the official is responsible to the people they serve and held accountable by the elecotrate directly rather than by representatives (such as being appointed by an elected official)

The actual members of the agency should be selected on merit and extensively trained in their duties rather than elected

Agree on all counts.

In my neck of the woods, the sheriff is arguably the most powerful elected official in the county. By law, only one human being can place the sheriff under arrest locally.

You know who it is?

The coroner.

[Iowa #1603]

Agree on all counts.

In my neck of the woods, the sheriff is arguably the most powerful elected official in the county. By law, only one human being can place the sheriff under arrest locally.

You know who it is?

The coroner.

I guarantee a FED can and will arrest a sheriff if need be......

I see the word "locally" now.................because I was also thinking the State Police could/would also

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I guarantee a FED can and will arrest a sheriff if need be......

I see the word "locally" now.................because I was also thinking the State Police could/would also

Yeah, should've made "locally" clearer. There absolutely have been some rogue sheriffs in my state arrested by feds or state police. But the only local authority who can place the sheriff under arrest here is the coroner. The coroner also becomes the sheriff at least temporarily, should the sheriff die in office or be removed from office, until the governor appoints a successor.

[Iowa #1603]

Yeah, should've made "locally" clearer. There absolutely have been some rogue sheriffs in my state arrested by feds or state police. But the only local authority who can place the sheriff under arrest here is the coroner. The coroner also becomes the sheriff at least temporarily, should the sheriff die in office or be removed from office, until the governor appoints a successor.

Yea, here the county supervisors appoint a sheriff (normally the Chief Deputy) until there is an election

I don't like to see the Governor getting involved in local level stuff.....................

[PhilipCal]

Regarding the source you cite: In general, liberals come up with more pure bullsh..t on any given day, than a herd of buffalo. The end result of their effort is usually of less value than the product produced by the buffalo.

With just about each succeeding day, the "media" also a major component in the problem, regales us with yet the latest boondoggle, f..ck up, misadventure, SNAFU. FUBAR. produced by the usual run of the mill liberal thought.

Geez, how about free junior college? Slap Dick omits mentioning that SOMEONE is going to pay for that "Free". Guess who that is?
Or how about "we've got AlQuida on the run"? Now, there's a classic!! And then, we have that candidate for 'Dummy of the Month" Eric Holder who claims to have "de politicized" the Justice ? Dept.

These are but a few examples of how misleading and potentially dangerous, liberal "thought" can be. Want a perfect world? Go to friggen Disney Land. You'll still have to pay to get in, park, go on the rides, and spend the night.

[L-1]

I read the article and am confused. I was never aware it was our job to force prostitutes off the streets and into brothels or to enforced white supremacy by largely arresting black people on trumped-up charges in order to feed them into convict labor systems. None of this was ever taught at the academy and it never came down at roll call in my 33 years on the job.

Perhaps theirs is an article about law enforcement in an alternate universe?

[CCCSD]

Elected police? Soviet Russia, 1920's...

[Kieth M.]

Then your police will be good looking people with nice smiles and soothing words. Not the kind which might be counted on in a fight.

If you think about it, this might just get out of control, with a certain portion of the uninformed electorate voting people into office who seem hip, slick, and cool. People who lie about, or just hide their history. People who've never run anything, and spent every moment of their previous jobs just campaigning for the next one...oh, wait...

[GangGreen712]

The person who wrote that article is just wrong. Not just a difference of opinion. He is factually incorrect about his history. And, apparently he's never heard of a sheriff before.

Typical communist rhetoric: The system is completely and irreversibly built on corruption. There's no reforming it, so it simply needs to be destroyed altogether and replaced with a new system. Until that time, because the system is corrupt, we hold no obligation to obeying any laws or respecting any of the "illegitimate" authority.

[IAM Rand]

I guess I am a little confused by the article, Does he want every cop to be elected or just the Chief. What would be different from a sheriff then??? He doesn't address any qualifications to be a police officer. Can any schmoe off the street run regardless of their criminal history? In reading the article he weaves some truth into the article with socialist bs to come up with his idea of what policing should be.

Their basic job is to enforce order among those with the most reason to resent the system — in our society today, disproportionately among poor black people.

Why would they resent the system, because they are most likely to violate the law or because the laws are more unfavorable to poor blacks. The thing he doesn't really address is that the Police do not make the laws, the elected officials make the laws. What good would it do to elect the police if the legislatures make the laws the police are supposed to enforce. Is Sam Mitriani recommending that a duly elected Police Chief should ignore laws that the legislatures put forth for him/her to enforce. I thought that was the job of the Judicial branch to do. The fact that this guy is a professor and has very little knowledge of the judicial system is just evidence of the stupidity that is coming out of our Colleges and Universities these days.

What a dufus. This is what passes for a knowledgeable person teaching your children



Looks like a bartender at an old Holiday Inn

[ateamer]

Elected police? Soviet Russia, 1920's...

Santa Clara, CA, always.

[ateamer]

California sheriffs have no special protections against arrest. In fact, in most counties the sheriff is the coroner. If the sheriff violates the law, he can be arrested just like anyone else, and by anyone else.

[Seventy2002]

Elected police? Soviet Russia, 1920's...

I don't think anyone got elected in 1920's Russia, least of all the police. Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, while primarily about the labor camps, also describes the enforcement system that filled them. The police definitely weren't there "to protect and serve the population."

The author's viewpoint, rhetoric, and examples never get out of the 19th century, or as Trotsky put it, "garbage dump of history".