This Is The Terrifying Result Of The Militarization Of Police

[n2doc]

by PAUL SZOLDRA



While serving as a U.S. Marine on patrol in Afghanistan, we wore desert camouflage to blend in with our surroundings, carried rifles to shoot back when under enemy attack, and drove around in armored vehicles to ward off roadside bombs.
We looked intimidating, but all of our vehicles and equipment had a clear purpose for combat against enemy forces. So why is this same gear being used on our city streets?

Putting aside what started the protests for a moment, it's worth discussing the police response to the outrage. In photos taken on Monday, we are shown a heavily armed SWAT team.

They have short-barreled 5.56-mm rifles based on the military M4 carbine, with scopes that can accurately hit a target out to 500 meters. On their side they carry pistols. On their front, over their body armor, they carry at least four to six extra magazines, loaded with 30 rounds each.


"Why do these cops need MARPAT camo pants again," I asked on Twitter this morning. One of the most interesting responses came from a follower who says he served in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division: "We rolled lighter than that in an actual warzone."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/police-militarization-ferguson-2014-8

[Rex]

1. After 9/11 we all became enemy combatants or enemy non-combatants.

IMO, this is just the next step up in the War on Drugs(Poor People).

[arcane1]

4. I can't add a single syllable to improve that post.

[morningfog]

2. It's fascism.

Boot thug nobodies using left-over instruments of war on US citizens. It is designed to instill fear. This is all about control.

[CrispyQ]

47. This. ^^^

They are letting us know that everything is in place should we decide to get uppity. Be good little proles & we won't have to crack your heads open & put you in detention camps.

[tk2kewl]

3. it's terrifying

it's slow-motion fascism approaching it's endgame

[RKP5637]

30. Exactly what is going on. TPTB are afraid too many Americans are fed up with the dream. n/t

[Savannahmann]

5. I mentioned before that the cops were better armed than the military

No one seemed to care then about the potential for these kinds of scenes.

Is anyone but me worried now?

[RKP5637]

32. I seriously think it goes over most Americans heads. They just don't get it, how sh** like

this can overtake and destroy a country. There are many examples, but so many Americans seem so damn clueless.

[tom_kelly]

38. They are clueless and don't care

keep them pumped up on sugar, soda, fast food, and night-after-night brain dead teevee programming and their knowledge level of current events is right where they want them to be = close to zero

[RKP5637]

40. Much as the good Germans in WWII that thought the rising of Hitler was just a fad. n/t

[lpbk2713]

6. Clearly the general public is the enemy.

As they see it ... everyone is a bad guy. They just haven't all been caught yet.

[kentuck]

12. They get away with murder...

literally.

[gyroscope]

7. SS stormtroopers on American streets

the neocon wet dream coming true before our eyes.

[kentuck]

8. One big difference...

The Marines were fighting enemies. The police are fighting us.

[n2doc]

9. We are their enemy

They work for the 1%. Notice how berserk they got when some of "their" property was stolen and/or damaged. Compare their response to that given to Clive Bundy and his buddies in Nevada.

[kentuck]

11. Yep.

It has gotten out of control.

[malaise]

15. Ding ding we have a winner

They will kill all of us if necessary

[99Forever]

20. ^^This^^

This foretells what's coming. That this is what we leave our kids ....

[L0oniX]

24. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[IDemo]

10. See #6

[Boom Sound 416]

13. It's way over the top

[Blue Owl]

14. Mayberry R. Fuckin. D. Motherfuckers...

[Warpy]

16. We've all become "the enemy"

to militarized police. Think about that. They're the occupying force and we're the civilians who get in the way or who need to be either liquidated or pacified.

In the coming years, it will be seen that white skin gives no one a pass.

[GitRDun]

17. Whatever happened to courage?

There's not one management level cop with the stones to work an angry crowd, apologize for the incident, and ask people for the calm needed to finish an investigation?

These pictures are of cowards hiding behind storm trooper gear, no names, badges or anything that would allow folks to criticize their cowardice in person at the market (assuming they go to the same market).

This country's politicians and law enforcement have lost their collective minds. They're so busy trying to control, they risk becoming a bigger menace than the criminals they are paid to find and detain.

[n2doc]

19. This is a pic of an early confrontation

Not a lot of apology there, it looks like.

[Uncle Joe]

18. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, n2doc.

[Divernan]

21. Just being armed & dressed like that must get these guys so fired up and paranoid.

How many of our local policemen are vets of Afghanistan, Iraq, etc? Now how many of them have undiagnosed, untreated PTSD?

[cantbeserious]

22. To "Protect And Serve" The Oligarchs, Corporations And Banks

eom

[woo me with science]

42. +100000 Our government has chosen sides,

and it has not chosen ours.

[Moostache]

23. If the street gangs decide to go to war with these police, I bet on the gangs...

There are some seriously deranged individuals in the police, but by and large they employ military tactics without military training and nowhere NEAR military discipline. They are dangerous - to by-standers and individuals, especially minority men in their teens and 20's - but if a guerrilla force, or even street gangs with cohesion and a reason to fight, decided to fire on them, they could mow these idiots down by the hundreds without taking a causality in return.

Even the ones in the spiffy military threads.

The police are woefully inept and rely on brute force, intimidation and the appearance of overwhelming firepower to cower the public from rising against them. If the current pace of civilian killings, and targeting minorities in particular, keeps up, there will be a critical mass and a violent reaction from the public. The police have the advantage, but not one that they think they do without the tacit support of the people, which is eroding daily.

If self-preservation is an instinct they possess, the calmer heads in law enforcement had better get control of the zoo in a hurry.

[L0oniX]

27. Well that's the thing. Will civilians start firing back or firing first? Izzat what the pigs want?

They/cops sure look like that's what they are expecting.

[uponit7771]

25. One of them was screaming.. "....bring it your fuckin animals..." to a crowd of black protesters

[KG]

26. but, but, we don't live in a police state!!!

[CaptainTruth]

28. Where are all the Tea Party protesters?

I've heard TP leaders accuse Obama of tyranny over & over ... well ... guess what TP idiots, THIS is what tyranny looks like! If you hate it soooooo much, why aren't you in Ferguson protesting?

Oh wait, you only hate it when the black man is the "tyrant." When the black man is dead in the street it's A-OK with you.

Got it.

[RKP5637]

29. This country is headed down an extremely dangerous path. I fear far too many Americans have

blinders on or their head up their ass!

[Stonepounder]

33. This is how it begins.

The conversion from a free state to a police state. The constitution is no longer relevant to the average American. Freedom of speech, assembly, unreasonable search and seizure, petition for redress of grievance, even the right against self-incrimination no longer exists in any meaningful way for the average Joe, particularly if said Joe happens to be black or poor. Corporations have more rights than citizens and the police have the freedom to shoot unarmed citizens without fear of repercussion.

And the middle-class is rapidly disappearing.

[RKP5637]

36. Often the US reminds me now of Germany WWII and the SS. Same type of individuals exist here, names

are different, different times, but the modus operandi is similar. Given more time, unchecked, we will be there. To date, I've heard no officials speaking about things such as this, maybe they have, but I've heard nothing of a desire to limit police militarization. In fact, DHS, for example, seems to embrace it.

[2naSalit]

45. And/or

possessed by their iphones and ipads etc...

[Overseas]

31. Horrified K&R.

[RKP5637]

34. Just an observation, the police are all white, very telling IMO. n/t

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. That's so rich white people will feel safe. Those black cops could switch sides.

[riderinthestorm]

35. To those who dismiss the NSA surveillance breaches, this is the same treatment.

We are all enemies now...

The NSA isn't wearing camo gear and aren't out in the streets. They're doing their dirty work behind the scenes....

[Spitfire of ATJ]

37. This is all to make rich people feel safe from poor people.

[damnedifIknow]

41. A war on American citizens

Balko, writing in the Wall Street Journal, describes how this rise in militarization since the 1960s has created police forces which threaten citizens just as much as they protect those they're charged to serve: "

Law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment—from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers—American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop—armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties. "

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/12/1320956/-Militarized-Police-Turn-Protect-Serve-into-War-on-American-Citizens?detail=hide

[SalviaBlue]

43. $$$$$$$$

[woo me with science]

44. And terror is the point.

How many citizens who previously might have considered joining a protest about policies that are hurting them might think twice about it now, after seeing pictures like these?

This is the result of federal policy, giving federal grants to local police departments to purchase military weapons and vehicles like tanks.

Military device used on Detroit protest against #WaterShutoffs
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014852205

All The Infrastructure A Tyrant Would Need, Courtesy Of Bush And Obama - TheAtlantic
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022973186

The Militarizing of Local Police (through Federal Grants)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bradlockwood/2011/11/30/the-militarizing-of-local-police/

Another Day, Another 124 Violent SWAT Raids
https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/another-day-another-124-violent-swat-raids

Does your local government have a “black budget” too?
https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty-criminal-law-reform/does-your-local-government-have

Too many cops are told they're soldiers.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform-free-speech-technology-and-liberty/too-many-cops-are-told-theyre-soldiers

One ongoing scandal in the criminal justice world, for example, is the fact that there's no reliable data on how often police officers fire their weapons at citizens. The federal government is supposed to collect these figures, but for whatever reason, it simply hasn't done so.

Towns don't need tanks, but they have them.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform-free-speech/towns-dont-need-tanks-they-have-them

Full ACLU Report on Police Militarization
https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/war-comes-home-excessive-militarization-american-police-report

[lonestarnot]

46. Yeah don't we just suck ass!