{"id":131036,"date":"2016-07-09T00:25:21","date_gmt":"2016-07-09T06:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/09\/on-the-police-and-civilians.html"},"modified":"2016-07-09T00:25:21","modified_gmt":"2016-07-09T06:25:21","slug":"on-the-police-and-civilians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/09\/on-the-police-and-civilians.html","title":{"rendered":"On "the Police" and "Civilians""},"content":{"rendered":"

A valuable perspective.<\/p>\n

'Police<\/i> are civilians. They are the civil power. They are not soldiers. They are subject to the rule of law adjudicated within civilian courts[1] — not military justice. They are tasked with special powers and thus burdened with specific responsibilities and duties — but they’re civilians. They answer to mayors and (civilian) police commissioners and city councils and ultimately the public.<\/i><\/p>\n

It’s an expression of the dangerous militarization of the police to distinguish them from “civilians” — those who are in fact citizens, fellow citizens, the commonwealth.'<\/i><\/p>\n

Though I would add that the alternatives to "police and civilians" — “police and the community” and “police and the public” are similarly overlapping. Police live in the community. They are members of the public. Noting the police as something particular where pertinent is useful; separating them from the general citizenry benefits neither group.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

[1] Though this is not entirely true. Police officers often — by law or by city\/police union agreement — get deference in criminal investigations, often enjoying specific rights (delays before questioning, ability to limit the time of any given questioning period, etc.) that are denied to citizens who are not police. That said, and with these special breaks \/ privileges, cops are still prosecuted in civil \/ criminal courts, as with any other civilian. See http:\/\/www.slate.com\/blogs\/the_slatest\/2016\/07\/06\/alton_sterling_police_officers_won_t_have_police_bill_of_rights_to_protect.html<\/a> for more details.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\nPet Peeve<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A valuable perspective. 'Police are civilians. They are the civil power. They are not soldiers. They are subject to the rule of law adjudicated within civilian courts[1] — not military justice. They are tasked with special powers and thus burdened with specific responsibilities and duties — but they’re civilians. They answer to mayors and (civilian) … Continue reading “On "the Police" and "Civilians"”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":127946,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/11\/there-is-no-war-on-cops.html","url_meta":{"origin":131036,"position":0},"title":"There Is No War on Cops","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 11-Sep-15 10:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"Violence against police is up in 2015 vs 2013. That's bad, right?Well, yeah. Violence against anyone is bad, and police are a critical part of our social fabric. Assaults on and killings of police are a bad thing, both socially and on an individual, moral basis.But ...... 2013 was an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131498,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/11\/body-cam-storage-costs-are-high-so-some-police-departments-opt-out.html","url_meta":{"origin":131036,"position":1},"title":"Body cam storage costs are high — so some police departments opt out","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Sep-16 12:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"The problem, of course, is that \"good\" police departments are facing significant costs in implementing body cams, especially as states pass laws increasing retention time for the footage -- and that \"bad\" police departments can then use that as an excuse to not use them, leaving critical encounters between police\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24134,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/29\/as-the-police-become-militarized-the-military-becomes-more-policey.html","url_meta":{"origin":131036,"position":2},"title":"As the police become militarized, the military becomes … more policey","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 29-Nov-11 10:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Senate continues to move forward with a national defense budget that includes requiring the military (vs the police, the FBI, etc.) to take custody of anyone identified as being a member of al-Qaeda.Which maybe sounds just fine (as one letter writer in the Denver Post put it, \"we don't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51275,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/27\/the-cop-shooting-videos-the-cops-watch.html","url_meta":{"origin":131036,"position":3},"title":"The cop shooting videos the cops watch","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 27-May-15 3:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Though being a policeman is not the most dangerous job in the world (http:\/\/goo.gl\/1O6TnH), it's certainly riskier than, say, sitting behind a desk all day (except for the health risks of sitting behind a desk all day). And while the public is more and more seeing videos of police using\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128629,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/07\/when-should-assaulting-the-police-be-a-special-crime.html","url_meta":{"origin":131036,"position":4},"title":"When should assaulting the police be a special crime?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 7-Nov-15 1:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I can see the argument that police, when on-duty, are representing the state and citizenry, and that assault on them is legitimately considered a special sort of attack against us all. But should special penalties apply when a law enforcement officer is off duty? While I can imagine cases (as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24075,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/27\/because-what-could-possibly-go-wrong.html","url_meta":{"origin":131036,"position":5},"title":"Because what could possibly go wrong?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-Nov-11 10:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"I mean, between giving the police drone aircraft for surveillaince and tracking (and I'm certain that, like every other bit of high tech given to them, it will never, ever, possibly be abused), and indirectly opening up same for civilians (though I'm sure crooks and criminals will never make use\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}