Should You Fear The Police? - Exclusive: David Kupelian On 'Fundamental Transformation' of U.S. Law Enforcement

David Kupelian * WND

People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf,” goes the famous quote attributed to George Orwell.

Personally, I honor the police the same way I honor our soldiers in the military, because their jobs are similar – both protect us from those who would commit evil acts and do us great harm.

But police today are being put in an almost impossible situation, as we’ll soon see.

As a child, I had an idealized and naïve idea of police work, thanks to “The Andy Griffith Show.” The good-hearted sheriff of the fictional town of Mayberry seemed to be able to solve all the locals’ problems with wisdom and kindly strength – and the “help” of his inept and goofy deputy, Barney Fife.

Around the same time, artist Norman Rockwell rendered his famous painting, “The Runaway,” depicting a state trooper seated at a lunch counter talking with a little boy at whose feet lay a knapsack – clear evidence he was intent on running away from home.

When the real-life policeman who posed for Rockwell’s painting – Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Richard J. Clemens Jr. – passed away a few months ago, the force’s superintendent, Col. Marian J. McGovern, reflected on the iconic image: “The painting of a trooper bending over in counsel to a young boy intent on leaving home captures – much more than any of the images of shootouts and car chases favored by popular culture – the highest ideal of police work: helping someone in need at a vulnerable moment.”

“Helping someone in need.” Yes, that’s what it’s supposed to be all about, which may be why, during the tumultuous 1960s, when both stoned-out hippies and angry leftists publicly reviled the police and called them “pigs,” my favorite bumper sticker was: “IF YOU THINK COPS ARE PIGS, NEXT TIME YOU’RE IN TROUBLE, CALL A HIPPIE.”

When the 1991 Rodney King scandal involving the Los Angeles Police Department led to a media feeding frenzy over supposedly widespread “police brutality” in America, I sided with the cops. In fact, my journalistic defense of law enforcement at the time, which explored the multitude of stresses, sacrifices and challenges police work entails, was widely published in newspapers, law enforcement publications and criminology textbooks.

‘Unraveling’

Alas, over the past few decades, powerful forces have transformed America – and Americans. Many vital institutions have been progressively changed – in fact, just about all of them: The elite news media are more wretched than ever. Hollywood glorifies extreme violence and sexual debauchery. Big labor unions provide funding and zombie ground troops for radical causes and candidates. Our educational system is off-the-charts secular-left, zealously indoctrinating the next generation about how unfair, racist and oppressive America is.

Read more at WND: http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/should-you-fear-the-police/#OtYJTH7GxJX5qQED.99