Peace Officer or Revenue Ranger?

One of the biggest problems with law enforcement today is caused by the irresponsible behavior of politicians. Far too often politicians fail to balance their budgets by either raising taxes or cutting spending, leaving huge budget shortfalls that need to be compensated for somewhere. Unfortunately, many states, cities, and municipalities have come to rely on fines and fees for services to make up the difference. This has caused many government bodies to repurpose peace officers as revenue rangers.

Now, law enforcement officers aren't judged by how well they keep the peace, but rather by how much money they bring in. It's a dangerous situation most obviously on display when they utilize civil asset forfeiture, but almost everything we see our law enforcement officers doing today is about making money. Parking citations, traffic violations in which there is no injured party, as well as fines for seemingly victimless crimes like prostitution, gambling, drug possession, etc. are also a problem. Some incensed police accountability activists now refer to the police as road pirates, or extortion soldiers. Many activists are motivated by perceived injustices in their own lives perpetrated by law enforcement. The civilian response to this legalized theft has been mostly peaceful, and many examples of those peaceful responses can be found on this channel. However, we have seen violent responses as well, such as the brutal attack carried out on July 7, 2016, by Micah Xavier Johnson in Dallas, Texas.

While incompetent politicians and the people that continue to vote for them are at the root of the problem, there is another factor that should not be overlooked, and that is the nature of the beast that is bureaucracy. It's common practice in government to spend every dime of allocated budget whether it's necessary or not. This is because bureaucrats fear if they have a surplus, their budget will be cut. This results in ridiculous waste of taxpayer dollars, so a department can ensure it will not be deprived of more taxpayer dollars to waste in the next fiscal year. Bureaucracies have time and time again demonstrated a sense of self-preservation and desire to grow.

Some say the solution to stopping this out of control money grab is to starve the beast, but we must not forget that a hungry dog is an angry dog. We risk more violent policing than we already have if this is the only tactic we employ. We the people must find a multi-pronged solution to this complex problem, because it's obvious politicians, bureaucrats, and law enforcement officials are either unwilling or incapable of doing so.

For the skeptics that don't believe peace officers are being utilized as revenue rangers, I urge you to watch the video below.