D.C. Council Member Recommends Disarming the Police

By Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Oct. 10, 2014

Washington D.C. — D.C. Councilman David Grosso made some big waves at a police oversight hearing this week when he suggested disarming officers in the district.

“My staff won’t let me tell you that I think we oughta get rid of guns in the city and that police shouldn’t have guns so I’m not gonna tell you that,” Grosso said.

Another council member actually spoke up in support of Grosso’s radical suggestion. Councilman Tommy Wells pointed out that the idea is not just some crazy pipe dream.

"In other countries not every police enforcement officer is armed with a weapon that's going to kill somebody," Wells said.

Wells went on to explain how quickly violence can escalate with a gun versus non-lethal methods, "it's one thing to escalate with a billy club versus escalating with a pistol."

This suggestion to disarm police comes on the heels of rash of unnecessary force complaints from citizens. "Some of the officers treat the citizens who are black in this community like animals on a daily basis," said Patrice Sulton, of the D.C. branch of the NAACP.

This suggestion to disarm police officers is a radical idea, but it is radical ideas that have the most effect.

While there is no official database which keeps track of all police shootings, the FBI estimates that over 400 “justifiable shootings” occur each year.

To those who think this is some kook idea just look at Reykjavík, Iceland, a city of approximately 325,000 people, the citizens are heavily armed- while the police are unarmed. In the entire country of Iceland only once has a police officer ever killed anyone.

When a government continues to heavily arm a police force, it quickly becomes a standing army with an incentive to use its weaponry. Peaceful people are then made “the enemy,” as society spirals into a tyranny.

The US is well on its way down this spiral and it will take radical conversations like the DC council had about disarming police to correct our path.
“When the government fears the people there is liberty; when the people fear the government there is tyranny.” -Thomas Jefferson
For far too long this country has feared its government. If we take away their guns, while keeping ours, there can be liberty once more.













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