Republicans Must Be The Party Of The Police

As police departments across the country come under attack, the GOP must be strong in their defense.

If you are watching the news or thumbing through Twitter you probably have the sense that the police are not very popular at the moment. In fact, you would probably be wrong. Over the years polls have shown that local police forces are overwhelmingly popular. Nationally the police rank third in a list of most trusted institutions behind only the military and small business.

Gallup tracking polls show wide support for police, as did a 2019 Civis poll. It may well be true that now in the midst of the protests approval of police has been somewhat diminished, but this is not the first police killing of a black person to become a huge national story. And yet faith in police keeps relatively steady.

As many in the Democratic Party take aim at the nation’s police departments, threatening them with abolition or defunding, Republicans must be rock solid in their support for the institution of policing. And they should do so not just because its politically popular, but because of why its politically popular.

There are a few things that most people believe about the police and policing all at once. They know that it is dangerous work; they know that if they ever need the police the police will be there, and they know that the police have a power unlike any other force in our legal system. Pertaining to that last one, people also know that when so much power is entrusted, abuse of that power is to some extent inevitable.

Those who oppose the police, who seek its demise or abolition, exist between two utopias. On the one hand, they believe that order can be maintained without the power being used to maintain it ever being abused. On the other hand, they believe that without police power, crime would simply wither on the vine. Both of these assertions are absurd. They represent a profound misunderstanding of human nature and the role of law to constrain it.

Read the rest from David Marcus HERE.

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