Who Are the Police?

John Goerke recently wrote a two-part series on The Purpose of the Police. He points out we have police to keep the peace for the sake of the family, but that recent events should make us wonder if this is actually the mission of most police forces today.

I’m one of those conservatives that thinks libertarians are wrong even when they are right. I find myself largely unsympathetic when I visit the pages of Reason Magazine and read op-eds bashing our police and country. Nevertheless, I must admit that Goerke, from a conservative perspective, points to a great change in our country and method of law enforcement.

Being from the Southern part of these here United States, I was raised on The Andy Griffith Show, and I assumed all young children across the country were as well. That illusion was shattered when I moved to D.C. and began working with colleagues who grew up in New England or California. After learning these exotic locales also do not have sweet tea or venerate John Wayne, I must assume they are godless places.

Andy Griffith, of course, was the sheriff of the small North Carolina town of Mayberry. Few exciting things ever happened in Mayberry, so Andy never even carried a gun unless the state police called to warn of a criminal on the loose. Andy instead spent most of his time using the town’s only squad car to deliver baby supplies to a bed-ridden mother or giving history lessons to local children in his office.

I’ve been accused more than once of living in a past that is no longer real. But for Southerners the past is never really past. We live in the shadow of things, and this is something not everyone in our modern fast-paced age will understand. But the shadow of the old Mayberry ideal was still around when I grew up. I knew the local sherrif, and he was so at home in his community that at election debates he, being a good Baptist, took a light hearted jab at the theology of his Catholic opponent to the applause of the audience. There were police officers in my local church, and when one of them tragically died the community came together in a way I’ve never seen.

These are the police my conservative instincts want to defend from libertine tirades. But sadly, I must admit these are not the police we have on our streets anymore. You see, Andy Griffith had a famous deputy named Barney Fife. While Andy was laid back and knew the town of Mayberry could pretty much care for itself, Barney was convinced the town needed military motorcycles, speed-traps, tear gas, and riot equipment. He also frequently handed out tickets to elderly ladies for jay-walking.

When I read about local police departments acquiring tanks and military grade armaments, I sometimes can’t help but laugh. These police are not the respectable small-town community leaders. They are simply the over-anxious Barney Fifes who have been given too much power.