R: Disarm the Police

The nation is ablaze with the tragic fallout of Ferguson. No one needs a briefing of what happened there, but at the center of it all are serious questions regarding the use of overwhelming force and the common use of firearms—both light and heavy—in American policing. Honest mistakes or systematic institutional perversion—either becomes much deadlier when policemen draw their guns.

Would America be better off, then, with a drastically demilitarized and even disarmed police force? Has America become tyrannized by the weaponized mechanisms of state enforcement, or are we simply begging for the chaos of communal helplessness in the face of disorder?

We are no strangers to broken trust, injustice, riots of all stripes, and the darker elements of human nature. The police are there to protect and serve the people, and to combat nemeses to peaceful existence. We must determine whether such combat is best done well-armed, or if it is hampered by the wielding of such power as an instrument. We, of course, must keep in mind the fine men and women who protect us by risking their lives, citizens of every walk of life, and those who will inherit our legacy.