“Holding the police responsible for their actions”. Depending how you intend to enforce this thought, you might find that most police officers have no problem being held responsible for their actions. It goes with the territory. Ultimately, the police are held either accountable under Criminal Law or civil law (lawsuits) and for those that knowingly and with criminal thought exceed their powers, they find little support from their fellow officers.
Where most police have a problem is when their actions are second guessed by pseudo-intellectuals who have little better to do than closely monitor the police, analyze every movement over a long period of time and then come to a conclusion without really taking into consideration the dynamics of the moment. Police officers are not robo-cops and think of the implication of using robo-cops, and are susceptible to the various pressures of life like everyone else. They are human, have problems at home with spouses and children like everyone else and, are fortunately capable of independent thought that allows them to use some discretion in their actions. Sometimes, these decisions fail in their implementation but, they were made honestly.
Laws are not meant to control the vast majority of people who usually have no problem dealing with life’s issues. They are meant to control those that either prey on the rest of us or, have a low moral upbringing and lack an average level of morality mentally. Most of the free love, without rules societies fail because they fall victim to those that manipulate and want control. The police only stop these miscreants from taking control of our lives and bring them to justice. Sometimes they make mistakes and it is the very people they are trying to help who attack them with vigor.
Do we wish a society controlled by biker gangs, sociopaths, drug dealers, corrupt politicians, serial killers and rapists and, those of strong uncontrolled character? If you do, continue to allow our left wing to eat away at the police powers and limit their ability to truly protect the innocent. You might find that most police officer’s themselves shudder at the thought of a police state. It would also restrict their freedom as well. You see, a biker dominated society is very different from a police state but, both truly limit our freedoms.
An article in the Toronto Star (March 15/07) by Paul F. McKenna warns about the perils of “racial profiling” by the police. He argues that we should keep stats on who is arrested and by whom to ensure there is no racial profiling. This would end up in selective enforcement to ensure you don’t end up on some racial profiling list. It would also be the cause of non-productive profiling to ensure compliance with the politically correct. It is much too simplistic and does not take into account, the community that is being policed, the types of criminals who frequent a particular community and, perverse the ability of police to properly police a community to the communities’ benefit.
Let the laws control police activity without hamstringing their ability to ultimately protect us from those who quickly argue for limiting powers for their own advancement of criminal behaviour.