Violence perpetrated by the police against citizens, which is followed by violence perpetrated by citizens against the police. This toxic pattern threatens to tear apart our communities. It threatens also to rend the Constitutional fabric of our federal system.
Federalism requires drawing lines and distinguishing national from local issues. The Tenth Amendment reserves to localities what is called the "police power." But, when the exercise of the police power violates Constitutional rights, the national government must intervene. Thus, a local issue gets nationalized.
Of course, we must not tolerate the violation of fundamental Constitutional rights by local police officers, but we ought to be concerned at the same time about nationalizing local government issues. These issues are reserved to local governments because they advance the Constitutional goal of local democratic control.
To nationalize local issues of law enforcement is to jeopardize two Constitutionally important principles -- local citizen involvement and local citizen control. Furthermore, the record of nations with a nationalized police force is not encouraging for the friends of democracy.
So we must address these problems of local law enforcement now. Action is demanded on behalf of justice and civil rights, but action is demanded also in order to preserve the basic boundaries of our Constitutional system.
I'm Bob Evans, and that is my perspective.
