How Ferguson made conservatives lose faith in the police

The warrior cops in Missouri aren't exactly ensuring ordered liberty

Ferguson
(Image credit: (Scott Olson/Getty Images))

As we watch the turmoil in Ferguson — where protests and police crackdowns raged for a week in the wake of a police shooting of an unarmed black teenager — many Americans have been forced to reassess their views on the duty and tactics of the police. But we conservatives — with our dueling affinity for law-and-order institutions like the police and our libertarian-inspired opposition to abuses of government power — are perhaps the most torn.

Over at the Federalist, Hans Fiene notes, "For many conservatives, especially those of us living in nice, comfy suburbs, it's hard to apply the 'power corrupts' doctrine to law enforcement because we've never seen corrupted enforcers of the law." But now we're all seeing it. As libertarian Conor Friedersdorf writes at The Atlantic, the Ferguson images, for many Americans, are akin to the video of the Rodney King beating, which first taught him to distrust cops.

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Matt K. Lewis

Matt K. Lewis is a contributing editor at TheWeek.com and a senior contributor for The Daily Caller. He has written for outlets including GQ Politics, The Guardian, and Politico, and has been cited or quoted by outlets including New York Magazine, the Washington Post, and The New York Times. Matt co-hosts The DMZ on Bloggingheads.TV, and also hosts his own podcast. In 2011, Business Insider listed him as one of the 50 "Pundits You Need To Pay Attention To Between Now And The Election." And in 2012, the American Conservative Union honored Matt as their CPAC "Blogger of the Year." He currently lives in Alexandria, Va.