Expert says Function of Police is no Longer to Protect and Serve

Thomas Nolan, a professor and former Boston police officer, said that the war on terror has turned police officers into occupying armies for Homeland Security, destroying the relationship between cops and communities. Raw Story reported Nolan’s comments while sitting on a panel for the American Constitution Society.

“I think what has happened as a direct result of that, is that those relationships that we forged, and worked so hard to attain and to maintain in the late 1980s and early 1990s, began to erode because the police were seen, particularly in communities of color, as an army of occupation,” Nolan said.

“If you dress police officers up as soldiers and you put them in military vehicles and you give them military weapons, they adopt a warrior mentality,” he continued. “We fight wars against enemies, and the enemies are the people who live in our cities – particularly in communities of color.”

Nolan said that he feels unsafe with police around even in his Boston neighborhood.