Militarizing the police

[Bgno64]

Run time: 03:16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_REVtwOxZcc   Posted on YouTube: June 16, 2011 By YouTube Member: gsmartremarks Views on YouTube: 4   Posted on DU: June 16, 2011 By DU Member: Bgno64 Views on DU: 1215

 
Gil Smart notes how new equipment - and maybe a new mindset - are making the police look and act a lot more like the military.

[KansDem]

1. The footage starting at 0'57" looks like some despotic potentate of a 3rd-world country...

...just called out his "security forces" to quell "unrest" in the streets!

Never thought I'd see this in the good ol' USA...

[Arctic Dave]

2. I'm not able to watch the video but I do agree the police are becoming de facto paramilitary.

Listen to most military police, or personell, and they will tell you they are just in the military so they can be fast tracked for hiring by local PD's. If you don't think they bringing that training and mentality with them you are not being honest.
I am really concerned about the level of nuts they will hire from the new occupations of the ME.
I foresee an uptick in even more violent opppression of citizens. After all, they think this is a legitimate way of dealing with people.

[RC]

3. I can see this kind of stuff escalating int to local clashes, then into a full civil war.

And I am not violence prone.

[Arctic Dave]

4. Agreed. I see them killing the wrong person and creating a violent backlash.

It becomes a tit for tat esculation much like the drug violence in Mexico.

[SoapBox]

5. AND...add this to the mix...

The talk of trying to get HR-1955 “The Violent Radicalization And Homegrown Prevention Act” passed again.

Police state...Facism...

Kind of looks like a country that we never thought that we would live in.

[leveymg]

6. Reminds me of this vehicle> The 3rd world counterinsurgence is already here.

[Harry J Asslinger]

7. Indeed

Abetting this is the pervasiveness of the language of war -- the confluent War on Terrorism and War on Drugs. I would say these two "wars" are also responsible for making law enforcement one of the putrid limbs of the MIC.

If the American people ever begin to thrash about, there will already be an extensive system of surveillance in place coupled with high-tech equipment and a police force inculcated to treat us as enemies.

[hootinholler]

8. So they have an armored vehicle but...

They ride on the step outside? A practice that has been abandoned by fire companies across the nation for at least 10 years (in Md, it's more like 15).

What good is all that armor when the cops are on the outside?

Lancaster County Pa. Hmmm aren't they famous for the Amish? Aren't the Amish pacifists?

W. T. F.

So wrong on so many levels.

-Hoot

[bullpit]

9. While our government supports the people rising up

in other countries, to try and right the wrongs of their leaders, let that happen here,(because of an ultra-unresponsive government) and you'll have the army on you in a heartbeat. Peaceful protest and voting are ineffective in this day and age. Voting just trades one pack of liars for another with no change in sight. Even the smallest towns now have some form of paramilitary outfit. In the small town I live in, cops carry both shotguns and AR-15's side by side in their cars. Toe the line or pay the price.

[Dawson Leery]

10. Police exist to protect the powerful