Law Enforcement

Proposal:

Law enforcement must develop a spirit of caring for people and treating them with respect and dignity. If law enforcement officers intentionally and unlawfully injure or harm civilians, the punishment for such criminal acts must be severe because it breaks the trust that people have in law enforcement which then creates anxiety and fear in the people and makes the job harder and more dangerous for the true professionals.

Law enforcement must be allowed to escalate the use of force when a person is actively evading or resisting arrest and escalate to lethal force when a person attempts to harm civilians or law enforcement after law enforcement have made their presence known.

Intent:

To protect the law enforcement officers and the people, civilians must obey all lawful orders given by law enforcement officers. If the people fear or distrust law enforcement because of a history of law enforcement officers treating people with disrespect or injuring or harming them intentionally, situations may escalate.

Law enforcement will be more effective at quickly taking control of a situation when everyone knows that when law enforcement is there, the best course of action is to stop whatever is going on and follow directions, and that any disputes can be resolved later, and that when people are complying with directions they will be treated with respect and dignity, and that any attempt to harm law enforcement will be met with lethal force.

Discussion:

Unlawfully injuring or harming civilians means abuse of power such as mistreating people who are cooperating, making up bogus charges such as resisting arrest when someone isn’t resisting, or use of physical force against someone who is already detained or arrested and is complying with directions.