Cowboy policing is over.

The days of cowboy policing are over.  And the beginning of the end was right as I was calling it.  I just came across this video from late 2016 where a head cop was reading the riot act to Austin police behind closed doors.  He was clearly and sincerely telling the cops under his command that shoot first and then expect support from the higher ups was over.  He warned them with little doubt that he was not going to support that kind of cowboy policing going forward.  And he very clearly pointed out that cops need to de-escalate violence.  Simply encountering someone who is not cowering at their every word is not good reason to physically slam them around or, in the case of the naked sprinting guy, take his life like it was nothing.

There are clearly times when the cops need to use strong force.  But they need to be able to throttle it.  When there is no danger to themselves, killing a person just because they have no intention of complying with the commands is amoral.  A cop that does that needs to go into a big meat grinder on national TV as a lesson to the next armed dickhead who actually thinks he's the master and everyone else is his slave.  Well, to a cop, prison is that meat grinder.  Once in prison their life becomes Hell on Earth and their life expectancy becomes short.  They go from wannabe hero to complete zero in an eye blink.

I'm not sorry about that.  After all the abuses I have seen by those who demand a monopoly on self protection, I think they are getting off easy.  And besides, I clearly warned them that with peak liberalism would come peak tolerance for their bullshit.  Cops who kill people nowadays without justification are no longer being simply fired and shuffled off to some police department elsewhere.  And if you notice, they are not even being charged with manslaughter.  They pretty much skipped that step.  Now when they do it they get slapped with a murder charge even though in recent cases like Guyger and Dean there was clearly no premeditation or intent.  Both of them were just stupid, careless and a had general attitude that cops do not de-escalate but instead they blaze away as the first tactic.

I predict we could soon see the next phase of this begin to happen wherein people who encounter the cops become afraid for their lives and kill the cop only to find that the courts rule it as justified.  In other words, the people are not doing wrong, etc.  Example, the cops kick in the wrong door in a drug bust and someone kills 3 of them with a shotgun and then it is ruled justifiable homicide/self defense.  AND IT SHOULD BE.  If someone kicks in my front door, what am I supposed to do, ask for ID?  Ask for them to state their purpose?  BULLSHIT.  If they have a warrant they need to call the house while cops are pounding on the front door and tell the people that cops have a legal warrant.  They should not be allowed to "no knock" and in fact they should not be allowed to kick in the door at all for anything less than taking down a known, armed robber, murderer, etc.  Drug violations, ESPECIALLY pot, are NOT enough to kick in the door, especially now that many of the states have legalized it.  But even other "recreational" drugs do not warrant kicking in the door.

The reason cops use to justify door kicking is loss of evidence.  They are afraid that it will go down the toilet.  But being a very handy person I happen to know that all modern homes (1978 and later) have what's known as a sewer clean out.  It's essentially above ground access to all the "black water" in a home that goes down a drain.  It's purpose is to help remove clogs.  If you don't know what it is, watch this short 2 minute vid.

Cops have to plan a door kick assault.  The first thing they should review is if the home has a clean out.  If so, when they roll up on a house at 3am they need to bring a sewer sucker trailer with them.  This has a powerful pump and a long hose that you just screw into the cleanout.  Once this pump is running, anything flushed will go right into the police evidence bin in the sewer sucker.  Connecting the device is literally less than 2 minutes, and it's not even a dirty job.  Just unscrew the cleanout cap and then screw on the pump coupling.

Once this is done there is ZERO reason to kick the door unannounced.  ZERO.  The whole reason for a door kick is to avoid loss of evidence and my unique idea removes that reason.  Oh sure, its more fun to play real world first person shooter, but the people will not longer accept this bullshit and so maybe its time to find the obvious alternatives.

Once this device is connected and running, cops can just calmly phone the house and someone who is not an overbearing asshole can tell whoever answers to remain calm but that the house is surrounded by police on suspicion of (whatever) and evidence flushed will simply go right into the hands of the police.  Tell them them that flushing evidence will only increase their culpability and increase their penalty.  Tell them to come out with hands up and nobody has to get hurt, that escape is impossible and resistance is stupid.  Don't push them into a fight or flight mode by applying a ton of rapid pressure.  Let them think about it.  Leave a sixpack of cold beer on the front mat and invite them to have a few and that no harm will come to them for opening the door and getting the beer.  Tell them to sit down and calmly drink the beer and to think about their situation and how to make the best of it.  99 times out of 100 that will be all it takes to put the person into custody and very calmly.

Not being a cowboy doesn't mean not getting the job done but it does mean taking the time to understand the viewpoint of those being taken into custody.  This is how police can reinvent themselves as public servants that people don't want to spit on in public.  Of course, in no way does this suggest cops should have no right to self defense.  If someone in the house fires on them they can participate in what I call reasonable return fire.  That does not mean 20 cops doing a clip dump in a residential neighborhood.  It means 1-2 return fire rounds in order to show the shooter that cops are serious.  And the whole time the cops should be telling the person to calm down because it just isn't worth their reaction.  It's never too late for cops to de-escalate.

Oh, and sorry to say, police pensions will soon become a thing of the past regardless.  Cops do not deserve a lifetime of salary just for working 20 years and I simply do not want to have a smaller retirement because I had to pay for their bigger one.  Nope.  Cops need to gamble their life savings in the markets just like everyone else.