I'll call out point 3 as the most important. Right now we have the illusion of choice; we can vote on local and state law enforcement officials, or the politicians who appoint them. But usually that's not a very granular system, so abuses at the state level can't be addressed locally, and even if you vote out the county sheriff, you're not voting out the local police -- you'll likely get a new sheriff and most of the old police with a new boss. The new boss will have similar self-interest to the old boss and will likely end up in similar policies, given the incentive structure.
If we could actually have competing bids for law enforcement services by different companies, changing the law enforcement service you hired would actually mean something. It might mean the difference between a polite knock on your door and a 3am SWAT raid that shoots your dog, grenades your kid, and sends you to prison based on planted evidence.
This entry was published Tue Sep 15 09:58:13 CDT 2015 by TriggerFinger
and last updated 2015-09-15 09:58:13.0.
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