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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPolice in Springfield, Mass. adopt Iraq-style ‘counterinsurgency’ tactics
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/05/police-in-springfield-mass-adopt-iraq-style-counterinsurgency-tactics/Police in Springfield, Massachusetts have adopted Iraq-style counterinsurgency tactics and are applying them to gang busting with amazing results, according to Sundays episode of 60 Minutes.
Before you get freaked out, dont worry: Springfield police are not walling off whole blocks, setting up militarized checkpoints and jumping out of helicopters with bazookas. What they are doing is something thats been sorely missing from American policing in recent decades: community building.
Retired Marine Corps officer R. Scott Moore summarized counterinsurgency strategy as the combination of actions, structures and beliefs to resolve root causes of a conflict. As such, U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq focused on keeping militants at bay while creating stable space for a community to come together and begin resolving issues that create violence.
To officer Mike Katone, freshly home from a war zone and working for the Springfield police force, that strategy made more and more sense the longer he looked at his citys gang problems.
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Police in Springfield, Mass. adopt Iraq-style ‘counterinsurgency’ tactics (Original Post)
xchrom
May 2013
OP
leveymg
(36,418 posts)1. Another form of blowback from wars that have bankrupted and weakened America.
I don't want the battle for Fallujah in my town, and I don't want cops acting like soldiers in America.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)3. So they're working to end the drug war and bring good jobs to their area?
Because the drug war and lack of decent jobs are the two things that most drive the gang problems.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)4. +1 nt
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)5. Exactly.
Without fixing those two things all this guy is doing is trying to pump up his budget.