Rand Paul’s op-ed on Ferguson shows why he is the most interesting voice in the GOP right now
By Chris Cillizza
August 14 at 2:48 PM
Even as criticism of Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and other prominent politicians began to mount for their lack of comment on the ongoing crisis in Ferguson, Missouri, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul penned a thought-provoking op-ed on the situation in Time magazine.
"If I had been told to get out of the street as a teenager, there would have been a distinct possibility that I might have smarted off," Paul writes. "But, I wouldn’t have expected to be shot." He goes on to make the case for a demilitarization of the police in America within the framework of a broader criticism of "big government"; "Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies — where police departments compete to acquire military gear that goes far beyond what most of Americans think of as law enforcement," writes Paul.
Paul also ties what is happening in Missouri to his broader campaign against the government's expanded reach into average Americans' phones and email accounts. "When you couple this militarization of law enforcement with an erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury—national security letters, no-knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture—we begin to have a very serious problem on our hands," he writes.
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