Talk is in the air of making headway against police brutality and corruption, at last. However, true reform is doomed to failure until we adopt the one reform that has kept our military the people’s servant rather than its master. We need either a military-like draft for citizen-police, or else the kinds of incentives that cause men and women to join the military even in the absence of conscription.
Last month witnessed an historic breach in the “blue wall of silence” that protects bad police officers from getting their comeuppance and being weeded out. Four fellow officers, not plea-bargaining defendants of dubious veracity, gave devastating testimony against New York police officer Justin Volpe in the brutal assault on Abner Louima, causing Officer Volpe to change his plea.
