Thursday, September 18, 2014
IMPD Police Chief Calls Police Department Paramilitary Organization
The incompetent boob who serves as Chief of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department told members of the City-County Council Public Safety Committee that he runs "a paramilitary organization," a faux pas that appeared to go straight over the heads of the esteemed members of our city council who sit on this committee.
Hite's comments came in response to comments made by Councilor Leroy Robinson (D) explaining why he opposed the public safety tax increase just enacted by the council to support the hiring of more police officers. Robinson correctly pointed out that we don't have a taxing problem but a spending problem, noting that in the short period of time he has been on the council, the city has spent $286 million for private development, sports and entertainment and parking garages. Fellow blogger Pat Andrews summarizes Robinson's comments here.
Hite responded that "as a 36-year veteran of law enforcement", he has "never in my career seen public safety politicized the way it's been politicized." Again, there's that false argument that you are being political whenever you oppose raising taxes. Hite continued, "We have historically been a paramilitary organization . . . and we serve whoever sits in that chair . . . I don't know what we would do if we would do if we had to go to battle and we had to make a determination based on past practices whether we wanted to go into battle . . . I am a soldier in an army." Yes, our police chief actually believes the police department he runs is a paramilitary organization. I realize a lot of critics of police departments around the country complain that they have become too militarized, but it's quite shocking to hear a police chief of a major municipal police department describe the police department he runs as a paramilitary organization.
Hite has never had any formal police training. When he talks about his 36 years of law enforcement experience, he's counting many years he worked as a body man for former Baltimore Mayor Donald Schaefer (D). He never went to a police training academy or received a formal education of any sort; rather, he got grandfathered in to the Baltimore Police Department through politics. The only thing anybody in Baltimore remembers him for is the guy who informed Mayor Schaefer that the Colts had just packed up and moved during the dark of night to Indianapolis. Former Public Safety Director Frank Straub brought Hite to Indianapolis to work as a deputy public safety director as part of his diversity initiative. When Paul Ciecieslski was axed as police chief, Ballard tapped Hite to become the new chief, a role he had to wait many months to assume formally because our incompetent mayor failed to realize that Hite lacked the statutory requirements for being a police chief in Indiana. Hite got a waiver from the statutory requirement by taking exams, which he failed multiple times before he finally passed. So if you wonder why morale is so low at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, look no further.
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19 comments:
The first honest statement by a bureaucratic hack (though this one with a military arsenal) in a long time!
Too bad the incompetent reporters at the Indy Star can't find this type of information out! Meanwhile our television stations are too worried about hiring away sports reporters for horrible updates. The lack of information news sources in this city is appalling.
Gary, you're my most informative and reliable news source for Indianapolis news these days, please keep up the great work!
Just wanted to let all you paranoid schizophrenics out there....police have been called paramilitary for a number of years. All you have to do is pick up a book on police leadership and educate yourself. However, I know its much easier to not do your homework and rely on crap for education (blogs). Textbooks will tell you WHY a paramilitary narrative is bestowed...take the time to educate yourself before placing yourself for all the world to see as someone that is paranoid. I am ready to eliminate Advanceindiana as one of the blogs I read due to its incomprehensible ability to yell that the sky is falling.
Civilian police departments in the U.S. have never been considered military organizations.
Police defined(source, Wikipedia)
A police force is a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enforce the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder. Their powers include the legitimized use of force. The term is most commonly associated with police services of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from military or other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors
Paramilitary defined (source, Wikipedia)
A paramilitary is a militarised force or other organization whose organizational structure, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces.[1] The assigned role, function, equipment and primary purpose of a paramilitary may also strongly differ from that of a professional military. The comparison of a military to a paramilitary can be likened to that of a comparison between a medic and a paramedic.
Under the Law of Armed Conflict, a state may incorporate a paramilitary organization or armed agency (such as a national police or a private volunteer militia) into its armed forces. The other parties to a conflict have to be notified thereof.[2]
The use of the term paramilitary is debated, with different groups differently classifying groups as paramilitary or not based on disagreements as to what constitutes the correct standards as to what is similar to a military force and what is the correct method for deciding if a group meets those standards. The evaluation of the nature of a paramilitary force varies depending upon the nature on the individual group, the standards used to discern the list of groups that are paramilitary, and the list of groups that have been categorized as paramilitary.
2:22:
Police are civilians. They always have been, and they always will be. Once a police officer is no longer a civilian, he's no longer a police officer, but a soldier in an army.
"Civil" is contrasted with "martial." Police represent the civil law as opposed to martial law which is upheld by sodiers. As existing under the civil law, police are civilians.
If police are not civilians, they're an army, and America has a duty to resist and oppose any army exerting authority on U.S. soil, as America is not under martial law and is not constituted to be subject the people to martial law.
Police are not military. Police are not paramilitary. Policea re civilians, just like everyone else in America.
Police have no special powers. Police have no special rights. Police are simply night watchmen who don't want to do the job they were hired to do.
We would be far better off firing the police and outsourcing all police functions to Threat Management Center of Detroit.
The problem for current cops is that TMC views policing traditionally, and they believe that the first job of police is to keep the people safe, not to ensure that the officer goes home safe.
I've always considered police to be a paramilitary organization. They have to have the discipline required of the military as well as the organizational structure, training, subculture, and often functions similar to those of a professional military, but which is not part of a formal armed force. The assigned role, function, equipment and primary purpose of a paramilitary may also strongly differ from that of a professional military. The comparison of a military to a paramilitary can be likened to that of a comparison between a medic and a paramedic.
Anon 3:24 (a/k/a Cato) You will get noobdy to join your Revolutionary Communist Party from this comment board. Perhaps you should just tell your attendant you were on the internet again, and take your medicine.
Scary stuff.
The Germans found out the hard way what the consequences are when the citizens are unable to distinguish the distinct difference between a civilian police force and the military. The U.S. has headed rapidly towards a Nazi-styled government since 9/11, and has become too distracted by the cult allure of sports and entertainment that dominates our culture to notice.
The simple way to resist tyranny and oppression is to respond whenever someone tells you to do something: NO.
Nobody has the right to tell you what to do. Don't let them.
Being an American doesn't have a darn thing to do with silly national songs, national oaths and troop saluting. Being an American means having a backbone and not letting anyone else ever tell you what to do.
Being an American means not ever having to answer to anyone else and being left completely alone unless you've hurt someone else.
If someone tries to meddle in your life, rudely dismiss them. If you don't, you're not a real American.
3:46:
It's ironic that you'd accuse anyone of being Communistic when you and your tyrannical ilk positively hate individualism and the right to autonomous action.
I know you never sat through a high school class of any rigor, so I'll give you a free lesson: People with a libertarian bent aren't likely candidates for Communism.
Or are you perhaps throwing around political concepts without having the foggiest understanding of what they mean?
It seems that you and your ilk simply get angry and defensive at the mere suggestion of freedom and smaller government and in defense of your cherished totalitarianism, make a histrionic but vapid cacophony.
The most offensive words that came out of Hite's mouth was when he preached to Robinson not to "forget his oath," which I would have taken as an insult. Hite breaks his oath every day he dons a police uniform.
Anon 4:02: You are professing the anti-social mindset of a criminal and/or sociopath if you believe that: "Nobody has the right to tell you what to do. Don't let them. ...Being an American means not ever having to answer to anyone else and being left completely alone." Obviously, if you believe that, you cannot be a contributing member of society.
Anon 3:24: Your statement in support of Revolution is outrageous. You said: "America has a duty to resist and oppose police exerting authority on U.S. soil, as America is not under martial law and is not constituted to be subject the people to martial law." Without police we would have anarchy. Might would make right.
Sorry, both Anon 3:24 & 4:02, you have such a convoluted thought process that you really need help. Contact a mental health provider and, maybe someday, you can be an independent member of our society.
Freedom now is just an illusion. Gary, have you read Denis Rancourt's latest column:
"Obama's ISIS project is nothing but a pretext to murder and destroy Syrian society."
Part I
Cop-loving 6:06:
You are truly a fool. You say "Anon 4:02: You are professing the anti-social mindset of a criminal and/or sociopath if you believe that: "Nobody has the right to tell you what to do. Don't let them. ...Being an American means not ever having to answer to anyone else and being left completely alone.""
Fool, Sociopathy is exhibited by what one does to others, not by that which one does not wish to have done to oneself.
"Sociopathy or antisocial personality disorder is defined as mental health condition in which a person has a long-term pattern of manipulating, exploiting, or violating the rights of others."
Please stop bandying about concepts with which you have no understanding. In libertarian thought, the entity which is to leave you alone is the state, not your next-door neighbor inviting you over for a cookout. Please explain this thesis that holds that desiring to be left alone by the state violates the rights of others.
I have long held that the hard right in America is actually a very hard-left ideology. Your would-be thesis seems to hold that you're doing people a favor and improving their social scene by imposing a murderous police state on them. That’s Soviet and Maoist thinking.
You must also be slapped for mendaciously misquoting my work. My line read “Being an American means not ever having to answer to anyone else and being left completely alone unless you've hurt someone else.” You quoted “Being an American means not ever having to answer to anyone else and being left completely alone.” These are not the same. If you’re going to abridge a quote, learn how to do it correctly.
Unfortunately, you continue your fearful hate by saying “Without police we would have anarchy.” No, you fool, if every police officer in America were dismissed, we would still have a staggeringly massive government and hundreds of thousands of government agents. “Anarchy” means and absence of rulers. “A,” prepositional; “archos,” king. We are at no risk of being without tens of layers of government in America absent police, though it speaks much about you that you desire such total government and a government that is capable of watching every person, all the time.
Part II
Further, who is arguing for the dissolution of every police department? Can you not make a point without a straw man? Police as currently constituted is unquestionably a disaster, but a completely reformed police service designed for public protection, ever-mindful of their duty to serve the public, trained in non-confrontational means, patrolling without guns or lethal force might be worth exploring.
You close with this: “Sorry, both Anon 3:24 & 4:02, you have such a convoluted thought process that you really need help. Contact a mental health provider and, maybe someday, you can be an independent member of our society.”
No, you fool. I’m simply far more intelligent and far more of a man than you, so I hold thoughts that you can never possibly hope to understand, and I don’t look at the world with your coward’s eyes.
Indiana, like much of the Bible Belt, has an omnipresent love of authority. I suspect it’s because Hoosiers know they’re kind of dumb and don’t want anyone acting without having every proposed action reviewed by a smarter person. They just think things are safer that way. Hoosiers seem to extrapolate their fear of their own independent action to everyone else. I also suspect it’s because Hoosiers, like much of America’s un-insightful Bible-Belt religious simple folk, don’t want anyone walking around thinking he’s better than someone else. Hoosiers like it if everyone is heavily controlled so that no person gets to feel better than someone else. Hoosiers really like it if everyone knows his place. City people, by contrast, laugh at all of this and don’t care what you’re doing as long as it won’t burn down the city. Authoritarians typically really dislike city folk and city life.
I’ve made these observations after spending some time amongst Hoosiers and other not-quite-urban folk. Their politics is borne of bitterness, fear and hate. When they propose something, it’s because of an irrational hatred they have. When you probe the hatred, you quickly expose the irrationality, and they become violent and defensive. Fortunately, the irrational lack the verbal skills with which to defend their point, and they’re physically harmless, so the battles against them are easily won.
As is evidenced above.
Yes Gary, police departments aren't military organizations, they have ALWAYS been PARAmilitary in structure. You're trying to use paramilitary and military as synonyms, which they are not.
People often forget their history. Remember 60 years ago when police departments were comprised almost exclusively of veterans and they carried fully automatic Thompson sub machine guns, with an 850 round/minute ROF? That's 14 or so rounds per second. And they've had armored cars for decades...
For the last time, civil police departments in the United States are not constituted as paramilitary organizations. Yes, we have a lot of ex-veterans who want to utilize their training fighting foreign enemy combatants on the civilian population. There is ample evidence of this, and it's the taxpayers who wind up paying the multi-million dollar lawsuits to settle claims and judgments because too many civilian police officers tend to forget the limitations imposed on them by our constitution. The City of Chicago has paid out over $50 million to settle lawsuits filed against police in the past 5 years alone.
MacReady,
Police don't become paramilitary merely by giving themselves cute military ranks, any more than I become commander of the USS Nimitz because the ladies know me as "Captain Longshaft."
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