Trying to revisit all the bad policies that we used that reduced social programs and

[Baitball Blogger]

created community problems that required a larger police force. Here's what I got so far:

1) Ronald Reagan cut the programs for mental health and drug rehab. The decision was not without a negative social impact. As people with these problems behaved in ways that created problems for the rest of society, the police was expected to step up and clean the mess.

2) Clinton increased the budget for the police force and added to the war on drugs.

3) Scalia loosened the Constitutional laws, allowing police to use unconstitutional methods, like stop and frisk. He made sure these laws would not affect white neighborhoods by allowing stop and frisk only in areas that were designated high crime areas. It created a self-fulfilling prophecy, the more people were stopped and frisked, the more opportunities the police had to increase arrests levels to allow them to continue stop and frisks.

4) Police Unions resist any changes to the law that will roll back the power that police now have.

These things are pretty well known. What I don't know is, who is responsible for qualified immunity? When did police quotas begin? When did the police force begin to get militarized training?

[Phoenix61]

1. Don't forget the massive privatization of the

prison system. Gotta keep those cells full.