Opinion | Demilitarize the police
The May 30 front-page article “Learning about D.C. culture now on police recruits’ roster” included an amazing photo of police recruits wearing bulletproof vests as they are learning to better connect with community members. How incredibly ironic. To me, this standout photo supports the notion that the police are a military force intended to control the residents. Are the police operating from a place of such fear of the community they are supposed to protect that they need bulletproof vests when they are coming to meet residents and learn from them?
The D.C. police — indeed, all the police forces throughout the nation — need to step away from seeing themselves as military whose job it is to control the enemy. They should be peacekeepers whose job it is to support the community. They should be a service-oriented organization, not a military-oriented organization.
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