Occupy Oakland and the Militarization of America's Police
October 26, 2011 at 11:38AM by Charles P. Pierce | 11 comments
Read more:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/occupy-oakland-6530274#ixzz1bvx1154nBasic law enforcement in this country is thoroughly, totally militarized. It is militarized at its most basic levels. (The "street crime units," so beloved by, among other people, the Diallo family.) It is militarized at its highest command positions. It is militarized in its tactics, and its weaponry and, most important of all, in the attitude of the officers themselves, and in how they are trained. There is a vast militarized intelligence apparatus that leads, inevitably, to pre-emptive military actions, like the raids on protest organizations that were carried out in advance of the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. Sooner or later, this militarized law enforcement was going to collide head-on with a movement of mass public protest, and the results were going to be ugly. (There already had been dry runs elsewhere, most notably in Miami, in 2003, during protests of a meeting of trade ministers.)
Meet Oakland, Singapore-by-the-Bay. There will be more of these. Depend on it. After all, they have fans out there.
(It should be noted here that John Timoney, the police chief in Miami who crushed the protests there, is now a recognized authority on how to keep order in the face of public demonstrations. Chris Matthews even has him on Hardball to talk about it. That's the way the wind's blowing here.)
And why shouldn't the police be militarized? After all, we keep handing them "wars" to fight. A war on drugs. A war on terror. A war on graffiti. (Thanks, Rudy.) Wars are not properly fought with half-measures. Wars are fought over territory and wars are fought over power.
You put enough war propaganda into the heads of young men, hand them weapons, and give them a license to use them, and they are not going to see fellow citizens through the visors on their helmets. They are going to see enemies. Wars have enemies. In Oakland last night, the police took action against enemies...................
Read more:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/occupy-oakland-6530274#ixzz1bvwgGWIv