From: pat@fitz.uucp (Patrick Fitzgerald)
Subject: Re: Defined: National Police Force
Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL.
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 19:23:33 GMT

mpolen@gelato.mips.com (Michael Polen) writes:

>Don Baldwin writes:
>Thanks to Don for posting this. [...]

Hey, I posted the quotes!  ;-)


>|>>Here's what Clinton said about his National Police Corps, in his
>|>>economics speech:

I must correct myself here, I don't think it was a speech, but appeared in
the NY Times?.  The file I got did not have an attribution.

>|>>-----8<-----begin text-----8<----------8<-----begin text-----8<-----
>|>>Fight crime by putting 100,000 new police officers on the streets.
>|>>We will create a National Police Corps and offer unemployed veterans[...]
>|>>------>8-----end text----->8------------>8-----end text----->8------
>
>So Clintons National Police Corps is a program to fund additional support
>to state and local police departments.

So the government takes money from the states, sends it through the
patented bureaucracy money-shrinking machine, and then uses it to pay for
more police.  Why do the Feds have to be involved?  A few possible reasons:

	o They can redistribute funds from state to state.
	o If local politicians tried to raise taxes to fund police, they
	  would be voted out.
	o Assorted nasty reasons left as an exercise to the reader ;-)

The details of the plan have not been disclosed.  I am mainly frightend of
what _could_ be done, all in the name to fight crime.  I am not saying that
it would happen, but looking at the increasing abuses of police force
during the last couple years, I do not rule it out.


>Boy does that frighten the hell out of me.  After all, my state and local
>police departments are so overmanned now, that they are just falling
>all overthem selves to protect me.  [sarcasm off now]

Actually, the police are not there to protect you.  They are there to
apprehend criminals (after a crime has been committed), and to deter crime
(by their presence).

Study by "Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO)", showing
that police are under no obligation to protect you:
-----8<-----begin text-----8<----------8<-----begin text-----8<-----
     In 1856, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that "Local law
enforcement had no duty to protect a particular person, but only a
general duty to enforce the laws."
[...]
     Carolyn Warren, of Washington, D.C., called police on March
16, 1975.  Two intruders had smashed in the back door of her house
and attacked a female room-mate.  Warren and another house mate
called police, then took refugee on a lower back roof of the
building.  The police went to the front door and knocked.  They got
no answer and left.  The police were called again.  Thinking that
they had arrived, Warren called out.  The intruders found them and
for the next 14 hours the three women were held captive, raped,
robbed, beaten and forced to have sex with each other and the
intruders.
     The Superior Court of the District of Columbia held that:
"The fundamental principal that a Government and it's agents are
under no general duty to provide public services, such as police
protection, to any particular individual citizen..."
------>8-----end text----->8------------>8-----end text----->8------


In addition, more and more these days, we see police abuse of power:
-----8<-----begin text-----8<----------8<-----begin text-----8<-----
From: alane@microsoft.com (Alan Ezekiel)

The Seattle Times for August 8th has a front-page story entitled
"SWAT Killing: No Charges  //  State finds no negligence despite
split inquest jury".

To summarize the article: last March, the Snohomish County SWAT
team got a tip for a suspect in an armored-car robbery/murder.
They geared up and (in accordance with standard SWAT procedure)
assaulted the house with overwhelming force.

Unfortunately, there were a few problems.  (1) the suspect was
not in the house at the time, (2) his wife and two children
were, (3) the SWAT team did not announce their identity as police
officers, and (4) one of the deputies had an itchy trigger finger.

Net result?  Deputy Tony Aston shot and killed Robin Marie Pratt
in full view of her 6-year-old daughter and 5-year-old niece,
using his MP-5 submachine gun.  Pratt was totally blameless; she
heard men breaking down the door and windows, ran from her bedroom
to gather the children, and was shot to death without warning by
by Deputy Aston, who was in the hallway.

This situation sounds pretty bad, right?  Well catch this: Larry
Pratt, the man they were coming to arrest, was *innocent*!  They
dropped all charges shortly afterwards, saying they had received
a "bad tip".

Now the State Attorney General's office has decided not to prosecute
the Deputy.  To quote the newspaper: "Greg Canova, the senior
assistant state attorney general, announced yesterday that there was
not sufficient evidence that Deputy Anthony Aston intentionally,
recklessly, or negligently fired the shot that killed Robin Marie
Pratt, 28."
------>8-----end text----->8------------>8-----end text----->8------


>Based upon the above, where are the government's storm troopers that
>Crisp and others are inventing to scare us away from Clinton?  It is 
>sure easy to be afraid of something you know nothing about.
>
>Maybe these guys (Crisp and others) would be wiser to spend some time
>getting educated, then they wouldn't have to hide under their beds
>at night -- or buy assult guns to protect themselves from their
>self invented SS.

Ad hominem attacks (implying that Crisp is an uneducated paranoid) do
nothing to aid your argument.  If you look at history, Crisp is more than
justified to argue that a NPC has great potential to turn into an S.S.

With the current system, if you live in an area where the police are
oppressive, you can at least move.  If an NPC is implemented in a way that
removes this option...
-- 
   ______   |o| Patrick Fitzgerald     |o| pat@fitz.b30.ingr.com
  / ___  )  |o| Sr. Software Analyst,  |o| (205) 730-3741
 / __)/ /__ |o| Intergraph Corporation |o| Mailstop GD3002
(_/it(_____)|o| TIM Documentation      |o| Huntsville, AL 35894-0001
-- 
   ______   |o| Patrick Fitzgerald     |o| pat@fitz.b30.ingr.com
  / ___  )  |o| Sr. Software Analyst,  |o| (205) 730-3741
 / __)/ /__ |o| Intergraph Corporation |o| Mailstop GD3002
(_/it(_____)|o| TIM Documentation      |o| Huntsville, AL 35894-0001
Xref: sparky alt.politics.clinton:2214 alt.politics.bush:2090 talk.politics.misc:40530 soc.culture.usa:6655