In Your Opinion: Has Law Enforcement In The US Become Too Paramilitary?

[Me.]

I certainly think it has here in NYC. Ray Kelly with his state of the art command center and ability to shoot down aircraft with missiles. Not the least of which is his intelligence gathering capabilities. This guy is being mentioned as the next mayor which I fear would really turn the city into a police state. Then there's Oakland...

[libertypirate]

1. Duh...

Most of riot the squad is on the SWAT team.

[Exultant Democracy]

2. A qualified yes... For many minorities there is little to no difference

You can't become something you already were, but yes they seemed to have extended their definition of people without civil rights.

[Liberal_in_LA]

34. +1000

[lunatica]

3. Rachel Maddow and Richard Engel's 'Day of Destruction' shows it has become

too paramilitary. NYC even has helicopters that can take closeup film of people two miles away and sees in infrared. And there are cameras everywhere. There's a center in Brooklyn that houses the latest in electronic spying gadgetry with wall to wall monitors showing everything the cameras show. It's in Brooklyn because they figure NYC is the main target for terrorist attacks, if they can get past all the paramilitary police.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44292512/vp/44380712#44380712

Oh! And I live in Oakland, so yes, I think the police are too militarized

[Me.]

5. It's Become A Police Force On Steroids

And scary. All justified by fear.

[Blue Meany]

8. Back int he 1960s and 1970s when I lived in the east bay

the Oakland PD had a terrible reputation for violence and gung ho actions (like dangerous high speed chases). I always got nervous when I saw them show up at demonstrations in Berkeley, because I once saw them drive a car into demonstrators and another time saw 5 of them jump out of a car a few blocks from a protest and start beating up random young people in the street. They left one guy laying unconscious and bleeding in the middel of Teletraph Avenue. In those days, they were were known as the worst PD around. Berkely had been pretty bad, but improved when they adopted community policing.

[Blue_Tires]

4. it's been that for a decade now

even the small, podunk police forces got a LOT of high-powered toys and technology from DHS so they could prepare for Bin Laden's attack on Bubba's Bait, Tackle and Car Parts shop...

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. I truly believe that "terrorism" was the EXCUSE for all that DHS $ and training.

WE were the targets, all along. Sooner or later.

[Tippy]

6. Yes..and we have ALEC to thank for the mess we have today

They own Republicans and have pushed for legislation...to do their bidding...Corrections Corporation of America...keeping our prisons full for cheap labor...our privatized probation offices keep sending people back to jail for any type of violation...and our jails are soooo over crowded it is unreal

[tsuki]

7. Yes. nt

[Angry Dragon]

9. yes

[ixion]

10. Yes. Entirely so.

[frylock]

11. absolutely

[Gregorian]

12. 1990? CAMP. Helicopters with black ninjas with machine guns slithering down ropes.

Local cops with infrared scanners looking for indoor grow rooms.

Forfeiting homes?

It was militarized 20 years ago.

This is America. This is not America, as it was designed to be.

[goddess40]

13. Yes, yes, yes.

Part of the problem is that too many vets are hired. I have nothing against vets but they do not belong on a police force. They have been trained to use force instead of negotiation. I know there are times when force is needed but not in every case.

[Rabblevox]

14. Serve And Protect has become Command And Control. /nt

[Warren Stupidity]

15. Only for the last 25 years or so.

Sometime in the early to mid 80's, as part of the Great Holy War On Satanic Drugs just about every police department in the country went from "police" to "para-military" as the swat money poured in from washington. They have been planning for NOW for that long.

[jwirr]

16. Yes.

[Fire Walk With Me]

17. Can there be any possible reason for this:

[Riftaxe]

18. Possibly civil disobedience

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_disobedience">Civil disobedience

Now a quick question, when you break laws why do you think you attract police attention?

The entire concept of civil disobedience is to attract police attention, why get all pissy when they show up to do their jobs?

[Fire Walk With Me]

20. The Constitution is our permit to protest, it knows no curfews. Period.

It is our RIGHT and police actions border or are beyond the Constitution.

[woo me with science]

36. You have got to be fucking kidding me.

LOOK at that picture.

[woo me with science]

35. Oh my god.

No.

[Odin2005]

19. The cops are a state-sactioned organized crime ring and extortion racket.

[H2O Man]

21. Good question.

I certainly have "recommended" this.

I think that many police forces were "para-militarized" long ago. This includes, of course, the fact that many, many police officers in the south used to belong to the KKK. In today's world, many north and south (and east and west) belong to shadowy groups affiliated with the right-wing, including the armed fringes of the Tea Party.

Of equal or perhaps greater concern is the actual militarization of domestic police forces. Some, like the NYCPD, have international intelligence programs. Yet the worst turn of the tide began under Nixon, with the Huston Plan. This plan -- which Dean told the Senate Committee investigating Watergate -- was operational, despite Nixon's pretending he ended it due to Hoover's warnings.

The Huston Plan blended the national intelligence community, the federal agencies (such as the FBI), and state, county, and municipal police agencies throughout the nation.

The Patriot Act was, in fact, a mere updating of a largely computerized, high-tech Huston Plan. Indeed, Bush, under Cheney, completed the militarization of the domestic police force.

[Me.]

23. Here's A Question For You

Faced with increasing videos of police brutality and over-reach, will the good citizens of this country be shocked onto awareness? You know, on my tv set the shirts of the Oakland PD looked black which, of course, gave me 'pause'.

INHO, wicked dick not only completed but sanctified what Huston started.

[H2O Man]

32. I think that

this is a question best viewed in the context of the "three groups" that I have frequently talked about on DU since joining in 2003.

They are: (1) those who always support you; (2) those who always oppose you; and (3) the "undecided."

In today's circumstances, Group 1 already knows. The visuals -- both on the television and on the internet -- will energize a large segment that has not been out "in the streets." They may not all be heading to the open protests, but they will be becoming increasingly active. And that's a good thing.

Group 3 is, of course, the primary target audience. The tear-gassing of women and teenagers makes for harsh viewing. This is why Lawrence O's program was actually moved to 10 on MSNBC .... not ratings, but because Group 3 tended to watch him on MSNBC's line-up. (Group 1 watches Rachel & Ed.) Add to this Lawrence's showing the former Marine Sgt in NYC yelling at police. Think of the number of police requests for YouTube to take down the clips of brutality. Then add the serious injury of the young man at Oakland.

This is just what King et al sought with the Civil Rights marches .... the film of the attack at the bridge in Selma brought Group 3 more fully into support of the SCLC.

Group 2 is also important. It has several distinct sub-groups. The Glenn Becks and Herman Cains, by insulting the people of OWS, help move Group 2 towards our side. The 1% are amoral and immoral; they won't budge. But there are Group 3 people that have tiny seeds of soul and conscience. As OWS continues, a few will break away from their cluster.

[Me.]

33. I'm Counting On Photos Like Those In Post #17 To Help Swing The Tide

Thanks for the answer

[demigoddess]

22. YES!!!

All this "terrorist under every rock" stuff has contributed to it but they have also been really stupid with this War on Drugs **(&^% !!!! All it will turn out to be is training for keeping the public in line when a dictator takes over!!!! SUPER ANTI AMERICAN!!!!

[Fire Walk With Me]

24. They may answer this question themselves with the recent 70% increase in law enforcement office

requests to Google asking after the removal of videos of police brutality.

[aikoaiko]

25. Urban people control is now an intersection of policy and military.

[indepat]

27. Wonder if the higher-up bozos realize just how totalitarian, how brown/black-shirt-like

these para-military-type police officers, all decked out in armor with shields from head to toe, look to Americans and particularly to the rest of the industrialized world who must cringe in disbelief at these hideously ridiculous scenes from post-9-11 America. :shrug: :patriot:

[louslobbs]

28. Yes. n/t

Lou

[Puzzledtraveller]

29. I can say they have

I was a corrections officer for several years beforing getting hired onto Metro Louisville PD, I didn't stay long for personal reasons but there was a general vibe among the younger recruits, or shall I say more spry that they were eager for action. That's definitely not saying all were, but there was element that was eager. Another practical reason is PD's are responding to greater threats, like the Hollywood Bld shootout, I believe it was called, of course criminals having more lethal and larger arsenals and in potential terrorist target cities the whole post 911 beefing up of law enforcement. One more thing too, we do have a culture that glamorizes violence, coupled with cop dramas and actiona films that make it look fun and exciting to crack heads while you wear a badge. I do however maintain my respet and admiration for the honest in law enforcement, I know from personal experience how few can make things harder for the many. Just my opinions.

[JoeyT]

30. I remember them ramping up the weapons and "Us against Them" crap

under Clinton, so it isn't really a recent development. It's recent that they've been willing to use it on white people with increasing frequency. That's only because they've decided the people that can't fight back (The only people they're willing to fight) includes poor whites now too.

[Tsiyu]

31. In some places, yes

The cops where i live are pretty decent people.

Of course, this is not counting the campus thug pigs (in my opinion, and the opinion of nearly every one of the 99% on this mountain who have been their victims) at the University of the South, whom I've witnessed work for the 1% on this mountain to destroy the lives of poor Appalachians over and over again. It's really heartbreaking to see the lives the University of the South has ruined. I think I've cried more tears about that than anything else in my life. "Go Rich people's Jesus!"

In some places, cops are decent people. In other places, as we can see, they are terrorists.

[Mimosa]

37. YES. N/T

[BiggJawn]

38. Yes.

Black BDU's, M-16's (or M-4's, depends on the budget and DHS grants), tanks, armoured SUV's, flash-bangs, beanbags, cops hopped up on Roids...

They probably suspect that the regular military will not obey orders to fire on their own people. Well, maybe the Ohio National Guard...