Description

Now updated, the groundbreaking history of how police forces went to war with the American public.

“Fascinating and at times wrenching.” ―
The New Yorker

Recent years have seen tanks rolling through the streets of American cities, masked officers snatching parents from their children at school pickups, and chemical munitions deployed against peaceful citizens at close range. Law enforcement routinely confronts the public with violence on a scale that would have been scandalous just decades ago. In Rise of the Warrior Cop, investigative reporter Radley Balko uncovers how police were transformed into an occupying army. The wars on crime, drugs, and terror each empowered police forces at the expense of civil liberties. And under Trump, these powers have expanded in terrifying new ways.

Now updated to encompass the massive shift toward immigration enforcement and ICE raids, this fascinating, frightening narrative shows how American police officers ended up on a collision course with the values of a free society.

Description

“A fascinating and at times wrenching” (New Yorker) history of how police forces have become militarized, both in equipment and mindset, and what that means for American democracy  The last days of colonialism taught America’s revolutionaries that soldiers in the streets bring conflict and tyranny. As a result, our country has generally worked to keep the military out of law enforcement. But over the last two centuries, America’s cops have increasingly come to resemble ground troops. The consequences have been dire: the home is no longer a place of sanctuary, the Fourth Amendment has been gutted, and police today have been conditioned to see the citizens they serve as enemies.

In Rise of the Warrior Cop, Balko shows how politicians’ ill-considered policies and relentless declarations of war against vague enemies like crime, drugs, and terror have blurred the distinction between cop and soldier. His fascinating, frightening narrative that spans from America’s earliest days through today shows how a creeping battlefield mentality has isolated and alienated American police officers and put them on a collision course with the values of a free society.