I hold a license as a peace officer in my state, I no longer work in law enforcement. So I would like to preface my comments below by stating for a
FACT that not every police officer out there is a bad ruthless thug. I have known many fine officers that followed state and local laws and observed
the rights of the citizens they are supposed to serve and protect. At the end of a shift, the good officer can walk away honestly saying he was on
shift to protect the citizens in his area, and serve their needs.
Having said that:
It is the
DUTY of every citizen, to take a position of observation and reporting against unlawful acts of peace officers in their area. You
all, we all should at all times be ready to photograph, videotape, and observe acts of excessive use of force or citizen rights violations, when they
occur in our presence.
Know your rights, know what can be said and what can be done when witnessing police brutality or denial of rights. Not every police take down
qualifies as improper use of force or a violation of citizen rights.
The more familiar and confident you are in your rights, the more you will be able to know when rights have been violated.
Know how to document violations, and send the documentation to media outlets and to the department itself. Simply tossing a cop beat down on to
youtube is not sufficient if you are actively trying to observe and report against abuse of power and rights violations!
Take a stand, as is within your rights as a citizen, speak and be heard, document and present. Be a part of the solution, do not turn your back on
your fellow man. If you see something that is a clear and blatant misuse of police power, a clear overuse of force, a clear violation of citizen
rights, observe the situation, take down / photograph / videotape the situation, try to take down the clearly marked police car unit numbers of the
officers involved.
I firmly believe that if citizens can reach a critical mass, where more people are "policing" the police, rather than simply crossing the road and
ignoring / avoiding the issue, changes will occur.
Note that if left unchecked, tyranny will only continue to thrive. A tyrannical organization will spread and grow, will take more and more power and
devour more and more rights. It is the nature of tyranny to expand and grow to the maximum point that a citizenry will ALLOW.
That's right; that a citizenry will ALLOW, we set the high water mark, we determine the extent of our plight at the hands of unjust/tyrannical
organizations. The more we ignore, the more we enable.
These are only revolutionary thoughts to a people in a time of utter fear and weakness. In climate of empowered citizenry, in a climate of strong
civic opposition, these thoughts are everyday, expected, projected and the norm.
Only when citizens are empowered, only when citizens seek accountability of any and all violations of their (and their countrymen's) rights, will
justice have a true meaning and "just-us" cease to exist.
X
edit on 4-11-2012 by Xatnys because: (no reason given)