One would think police reform means taking most of the authority from those who are trained to protect and serve. However, it is only when one is looking from the bottom up that the true reasonings for the need of policing are exposed. Quite simply, the police is needed to protect the interest of the ruling class of the state. What is the ‘state”?
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology (1994), ‘The state is a distinct set of institutions that has the authority to make rules which govern society.’ These institutions, according to Miliband (1969), “are the government, the administration (the civil service), the judiciary and parliamentary assemblies.” These institutions, although not explained as clearly as should be, are staples of protections of capitalism and the free market, both which benefit the rich and powerful of our capitalistic society, and democracy for the lower rung be damned!
In another snippet from the internet: (In “The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State,” Frederick Engels writes that the state is “a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it has split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel. But in order that these antagonisms, these classes with conflicting economic interests, might not consume themselves and society in fruitless struggle, it became necessary to have a power, seemingly standing above society, that would alleviate the conflict and keep it within the bounds of ‘order’; and this power, arisen out of society but placing itself above it, and alienating itself more and more from it, is the state.”) So, just who or what enforces this power, the police.
Americans are under the assumption and belief that the police are here to protect and serve the general public; however, nothing could be farther from the truth, as made evident by this piece of information from, WendyMcELroy.com,: “In 1856, the U.S. Supreme Court (South v. Maryland) found that law enforcement officers had no duty to protect any individual. Their duty is to enforce the law in general. More recently, in 1982 (Bowers v. DeVito), the Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit held, “…there is no Constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen. It is monstrous if the state fails to protect its residents… but it does not violate… the Constitution.” Later court decisions concurred: the police have no duty to protect you”.
Engels continues; “the state does not exist to “reconcile” the interests of the various classes; The state exists for the subjugation of workers and oppressed people by the dominant, or ruling, class. This is expressed in the formation of police, the army, prisons, and other instruments of coercion aimed at keeping working people in line.”
This information, as incoherent as it seems, I hope, shows that the actual reformation and restructuring of police powers calls for much deeper investigation than most Americans realize or can comprehend. Let it suffice to say, “If you chop off the head, the ass will surely die”
