[Peace] Local responsibility for the police

[C. G. Estabrook via Peace]

> To the editor of the News-Gazette:
> 
> We have a serious problem of police shootings in this country, promoted by the government's 'war on terror.' In the last year for which statistics are available, police in Germany killed three people; in Great Britain and Japan, no one. Those three countries together have a population close to that of the U.S. - where in 2013 police shot and killed 409 people (and that’s probably an undercount).
> 
> It’s the responsibility of our local political authorities to stop the police in their jurisdiction from perpetrating these killings. The Champaign City Council should be particularly aware of their responsibility, given that a disgraced Champaign police chief was himself involved in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager. The City Council should
> 
> (1) restrict the carrying of  guns by police, according to the successful British model;
> (2) establish a police review board with teeth (unlike the Urbana model), including the powers of dismissal and initiative; and
> (3) provide outside investigation and prosecution of police crimes - but not by other police (or their relatives).
> 
> James Madison, the principal drafter of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, wrote, "No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time..." (Federalist #10).
> 
> --C. G. Estabrook