In light of the article and video, I want to ask two questions for you to discuss and argue:
1. What role do police and the increasing militarization of police (SWAT, military tactics, etc) and the blurring of the line between police and military play in the tendency of government to criminalize ordinary behavior?
2. What ethical problems does this tendency to criminalize ordinary behavior cause for the traditional police role of “protect and serve?”
3. what can you do as a law enforcement leader to change the direction of this trend toward criminalizing everything and back towards a more rational common sense approach
There is a book written by a legal scholar named Harvey Silverglate titled “Three Felonies a Day.” The assertion behind the book is that because of over-criminalization, over-regulation, and vague laws, the average person in American society commits three felonies a day. Watch the video at the link
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/criminalization-almost-everything
