Radley Balko Quotes
Finally, this case should serve as yet another reminder of just how dangerous and volatile these police home invasions really are, and why we should stop using them to serve search warrants for nonviolent crimes. They offer no margin for error.
Balko, Radley. Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America. Cato Institute, 17 July 2006.
The NRA has not only become extremely right wing organization from its early non-partisan posture, but a few of the officers have demonstrated an anti-government paranoia that most extremists would think extreme such as this quotation. Here he is on political company with the Black Panthers, the KKK, the Aryan Nation and the most extreme of the “lunatic fringe”
In many cases of police brutality, the police arrest the victim and the prosecutor agrees to drop the criminal charges if the victim agrees not to file a police brutality complaint. In Rangel’s youth there were no police review boards and if police beat young men, they were usually able to get away with it, unless the victims happened to be from rich, powerful families. In modern times, the police still get away with brutality but more and more are caught and prosecuted. However, the less police brutality is in large part due to the increased professionalism among police officers brought about by higher qualifications and much better training.
This statement by the police commissioner was very controversial as a major form of police brutality at the time was clubbing citizens with their nightsticks which were much larger and heavier than those used today. However the effect on the police officers was to green light heavy use of the nightstick and soon there was a major incident where the police badly beat many innocent citizens in their quest to control and punish alleged leftists. Whalen was forced to resign. See {626664} and {626663}.
Given that the Black population is less than 15 percent of the total, the odds against this occurring by chance is less than 100 million to one. The problem was then very hard to solve in that in most cases the cause was not anti-Black hostility. Rather it was that most police—including some Black police officers—were more fearful for Black males relative to white males and perceived themselves or the public in mortal danger much more often with Blacks than with whites in similar situations. Much of this was a historical societal bias and fear of Black males and much was the result of the disproportionate media depiction of violent Black males.
Radley Balko is an American journalist, author, blogger, and speaker who writes about criminal justice, the drug war, and civil liberties for The Washington Post. Balko has written several books, including The Rise of the Warrior Cop and The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist.
