Fastening The Shackles: How the Militarization of the Police was Prophesied a Century Ago

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This is a very good article on this blog. The writer did very good research.

I recommend you click on the link and read it.

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Scouring the archives, I found this stunning quote by the long-forgotten American reformer and author, Ernest Howard Crosby. Though his career as a reformer was short- only the last ten years of his life- he earned a fine reputation for his anti-militarist and anti-imperialist writings. (You can find Crosby's complete biography here.)


Militarism is not a thing which can be raised for foreign consumption only. We cannot give to our government the power to enslave other peoples without showing it how to enslave us as well. We may insist on firing our blunderbuss at weaker nations, but we are bound to feel the "kick" ourselves. It is well that this should be so.
For the people of America to stamp out the only republic of the East — for the people of Great Britain to annihilate the only republics of Africa — and at the same time to maintain their own freedom, would be to run counter to the simplest rules of justice, and it may well turn out that the Anglo-Saxon race in its mad attempt to enslave others, has really been fastening the shackles upon itself.

[link:http://nomadicpolitics.blogspot.ca/2014/08/fastening-shackles-how-militarization.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+NomadicPolitics+(Nomadic+Politics)|

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1. From the same article

It is not a long article

Colin Jenkins, a writer for the Hampton Institute, makes the same connections that Crosby did in 1904.
In his essay entitled "Coming Home to Roost: American Militarism, War Culture, and Police Brutality" Jerkins writes

Police training mimics military training, both physically and mentally. Transition programs that funnel soldiers to police forces have become common at all levels of government. The changing face of law enforcement is indicative of this process as forces that are traditionally advertised to "protect and serve" have become noticeably militaristic. Perhaps even more concerning is the fact that soldiers, many of whom carry the mental baggage of war, are being streamlined from the streets of Fallujah to the city blocks of the US.