Times Square Bomb & Arizona Immigration: Balancing Policing in A Democratic Society

Many Americans woke up this morning (Sunday) to the news that a bombing situation had been thwarted in a high profile hub of our nation: New York City's Times Square. They also awoke to see pictures of hundreds of thousands of people participating in rallies protesting the Immigration law (and it's slightly altered current incarnation) in Arizona. As a former deputy sheriff who worked on the border (as pictured above) and a former police chief, I see that both deal with ideas that go the very heart of who we are as a people and what ideals our country stands for.

DICTATORSHIP POLICING EASY

It is easy to police in a dictatorship. Sadam Hussein was able to keep murderous, warring factions of Iraq in check by being more murderous than those groups. At the other end of the spectrum, The anarchy that is Somalia has no central government or ability to speak of to keep the various local warlords in check.

The United States has long struggled with governmental control and it's most visible component is that of law enforcement. Policing in a democratic society is hard as is evidenced by the events of the past few days in Times Square and in Arizona.

In general, I do not believe that we should sacrifice our ideals in order to be safer. In the words of U2 lead singer Bono (I know he is not the biggest philosopher around, but his thought here is true): "We do not need to become a monster, in order to defeat a monster."

ALERTNESS

What saved the day in New York City was the vigilance of a civilian street vendor. This veteran took a moment to notice an unusual situation and reported to a mounted New York City Police officer. The officer in turned notified his chain of command and the NYPD Bomb Squad and NYC FBI field office bomb techs responded. The system worked there thanks to the alert observation and good law enforcement response.

In Arizona, police intervention could go too far in a situation which is really larger and more political in nature (My earlier blog post on Blogger and my interview with Alternet.org goes into more detail). If the police go with the Arizona scenario, we have started to move down the slippery slope that personified our country's treatment of the Japanese during World War II., as well as the Nazis. The solution needs to come from Washington, DC, so as to preserve our localized, democratic style of policing.

Having the police pull double-duty stretches already thin resources, opens fiscally-strapped local governments up to lawsuits whether they enforce the new law or not, and will propel crimes towards non-illegals as Hispanic victims and witnesses will be intimidated and not help the police stop predators. Those predators will also victimize non-illegals. The predator illegals that are here will not be scared by this; only the non-violent illegal aliens will be wary of the law and police.

Other states, such as Ohio, are thinking about copying the Arizona law. As I told the Ohio News Network (ONN), that would be a mistake. In both cases, what we need is alert people that will bring law enforcement into the picture when violence (or the potential such as bomb) enters the scene. The collection of intelligence has stopped some threats from coming to fruition and the same could be used more effectively to combat illegal immigration.


In this country, many officers have observed that people always want the laws enforced- as long as it is not against them. For example, all across the country, officers have agreed with my own experience having run radar in residential subdivisions in response to community outcry. The biggest offenders end up being the residents themselves and then they are not so happy to have that enforcement presence. Officers reading this can relate to it in their own policing experiences.

Even has a member of the police community, I have always been a staunch defender of the protections, rights, and even technicalities of our society. As I have said before, "It is those rights that protect you, me, my wife, and my son." I want a government that is strong enough to protect us, but not strong enough to move away from its democratic principles.

Much like the scales of justice, we must balance police and the power of the government enforcers in the middle. To much movement in either direction turns into the dictatorship of old Iraq or the anarchy of Somalia. We don't want to be either country. We are the United States of America and all the ideals that it stands for.