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Well, spring is upon us, and that means increased travel, increased outdoors activities, and recovery from cabin fever.  People get outside, drive more, there are more birthdays in spring and school is winding down.  And it’s no coincidence that, at this time of year, police activity increases, and the phones begin to ring more here at the Law Office of Alex DeMarco. Dominating the headlines some weeks ago was the story of a United Airlines Passenger who was injured in the process of being forcibly removed from a flight.   In the fallout from the whole affair, the overwhelming consensus was that this brutality was unjustified and unnecessary.  Yet a small select handful of individuals continued to defend the airline and the officers involved, repeating the familiar ring, “if he’d only complied, this would not be a problem.”   This represents a profound divide in our society, a new partisanship, if you will.  A divide between those who can handle some minor disorder while maintaining freedom, and those who need absolute predictability, even if that means disproportionate violence on every single individual who does not do as they are told. Police Violence, Not Just for Crimes Anymore Dr. David Dao had committed no crime.   By all accounts, he had lawfully purchased a flight like any other traveler.   Announcements were made offering for passengers to “voluntarily” give up their seats for an incentive.  He refused.   He paid for that seat.   He had a right to be there.   Because of United Airlines’ inability to do math and their incentive to simply grab more money, he was ordered to leave.  He refused.  But it was not United Airlines who ultimately forced him to leave.   For any civilian to physically grab, beat,  and eject someone would be a crime.  It would be assault. Enter the immunity of the badge.   He was ultimately removed by members of the “Chicago Department of Aviation”, a division of the Chicago Police Department.   Dr. Dao suffered a bloody head injury, concussion, and missing teeth.  The chaos and disorder of that moment for all on the flight is palpable.  And yet, it was in the name of “order”, a failure to “comply” with commercial demands, that he was ultimately brutalized.  This very high-profile story is but a symptom of a much much larger problem, and that is, we rely on police officers to solve the majority of problems that we used to solve ourselves.  Armed Officers Are in Nearly Every Public School In America An example is school discipline.  For nearly all of our nation’s existence right up through the 1990’s, police officers on duty at school were unheard of.  To this day, there are no police officers in private schools, and yet there doesn’t seem to be more violence, drugs, or criminal issues in those schools where officers never set foot until they are called.  What DOES seem to occur more in public schools with officers present?  Escalation and violence.   Recently, we… Read more {+}