That’s the suggestion in this
Tim Mak piece for The Daily Beast. Here’s a
fresh quote from the
Democrats’ favorite punching bag:
The militarization of police in particular is an issue the Koch
brothers view as necessary to tackle and which they have spent
years fighting, a spokesman said.“We need to address issues such as overcriminalization,
excessive and disproportionate sentencing, inadequate indigent
defense that is inconsistent with the Sixth Amendment, and the
militarization of police,” Mark Holden, general counsel of Koch
Industries Inc., told The Daily Beast. “We have deep respect for
the moral dignity of each and every person and because of this,
we’ve worked for decades to support those who defend the full range
of individual rights.”
Also quoted in the piece are Brian Doherty,
Cato Institute criminal justice director Timothy Lynch, the
ACLU’s Kara Dansky, and me.
In the fab new print issue of
Reason (see its Millennials sub-page here), my editor’s
note—currently available to print subscribers only!—talks
about how the rise of the allegedly racist Tea Party has
contributed to a criminal-justice reform moment that might just
undo some of the worst civil rights abuses of the past 40
years.
Much more interesting than merely finding more fodder for “Team
A good, Team B bad” is the reality that single-issue coalitions can
and should spring up from all sorts of political sectors, with
pissed-off citizens pushing recalcitrant politicians to undo some
of America’s most egregriously unjust policy errors. Why, someone
should write a
book about that!
As Brian Doherty told the Beast:
It is an issue in which there is overlap between liberal and
libertarian concerns, yes, a chance for coalition building as long
as both sides don’t get injuriously punctilious about ‘playing with
the other side….Libertarians might hope it’s a teaching moment,
as you might say, about the dangers and nature of state power.
Reason on the militarization of police here.
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