As you may have heard, police and Swat teams in Ferguson, Missouri have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at peaceful protesters, and outlawed peaceful assembly.
Police are also using stun grenades and ear-damaging military sound cannons against peaceful protesters.
Reporters are among those shot at with rubber bullets and tear gas, assaulted and arrested. Glenn Greenwald notes:
Last night, two reporters, The Washington Post‘s Wesley Lowery and The Huffington Post‘s Ryan Reilly, were arrested and assaulted while working from a McDonald’s in Ferguson. The arrests were arbitrary and abusive, and received substantial attention — only because of their prominent platforms, not, as they both quickly pointed out upon being released, because there was anything unusual about this police behavior.
Reilly, on Facebook, recounted how he was arrested by “a Saint Louis County police officer in full riot gear, who refused to identify himself despite my repeated requests, purposefully banged my head against the window on the way out and sarcastically apologized.” He wrote: ”I’m fine. But if this is the way these officers treat a white reporter working on a laptop who moved a little too slowly for their liking, I can’t imagine how horribly they treat others.”
Reporters have been told to turn off their cameras. And a no-fly zone was established above Ferguson in order to keep news helicopters away.
A state senator was teargassed along with protesters.
Congressman Amash tweets:
Images & reports out of
#Ferguson are frightening. Is this a war zone or a US city? Gov’t escalates tensions w/military equipment & tactics.
And:
Someone identifying himself as an 82nd Airborne Army veteran, observing the Ferguson police scene, comment[ed] that “We rolled lighter than that in an actual warzone” …
If you want to visually see how extreme the reaction of police is in Ferguson, compare what’s going on in Ferguson to what’s happening in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan (or scroll through this page of pictures.)
What’s really going on? And how did we get here?
We explained in 2011:
Journalists from across the spectrum have documented the militarization of police forces in the United States, including, CNN, Huffington Post, the Cato Institute, Forbes, the New York Times, Daily Kos, Esquire, The Atlantic, Salon and many others.
Many police departments laugh at and harass Americans who exercise their right to free speech. Here’s one example of police laughing at a civil rights lawyer after she was shot in the head with a rubber bullet:
Indeed – especially since police brutality against protesters has been so blatant in recent months, while no top bank executives have been prosecuted – many Americans believe that the police are protecting the bankers whose fraud brought down the economy instead of the American people ….
Some are comparing police brutality towards the Occupy protesters to that used by Israeli forces against Palestinian protesters. Indeed, numerous heads of U.S. police departments have traveled to Israel for “anti-terrorism training”, and received training from Israeli anti-terrorism experts visiting the U.S. See this, this, this, this, this.
Indeed, the Ferguson police chief received training in crowd control in Israel in 2011.
And Gaza residents are literally tweeting info on how to handle tear gas to help Ferguson citizens.
Even the mainstream media is picking up on the militarized police. USA Today headlines, “Pentagon fueled Ferguson confrontation“. And Newsweek runs with, “How America’s Police Became an Army.”
But they’re still blaming 9/11 as the reason for the militarization of the police. As we explained in 2011, that’s not accurate:
Most assume that the militarization of police started after 9/11. Certainly, Dick Cheney initiated Continuity of Government Plans on September 11th that ended America’s constitutional form of government (at least for some undetermined period of time.) On that same day, a national state of emergency was declared … and that state of emergency has continuously been in effect up to today.
But the militarization of police actually started long before 9/11 … in the 1980s.
Radley Balko testified before the House Subcommittee on Crime in 2007:
Militarization [of police forces is] a troubling trend that’s been on the rise in America’s police departments over the last 25 years.
***
Since the late 1980s, Mr. Chairman, thanks to acts passed by the U.S. Congress, millions of pieces of surplus military equipment have been given to local police departments across the country.
We’re not talking just about computers and office equipment. Military-grade semi-automatic weapons, armored personnel vehicles, tanks, helicopters, airplanes, and all manner of other equipment designed for use on the battlefield is now being used on American streets, against American citizens.
Academic criminologists credit these transfers with the dramatic rise in paramilitary SWAT teams over the last quarter century.
SWAT teams were originally designed to be used in violent, emergency situations like hostage takings, acts of terrorism, or bank robberies. From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, that’s primarily how they were used, and they performed marvelously.
But beginning in the early 1980s, they’ve been increasingly used for routine warrant service in drug cases and other nonviolent crimes. And thanks to the Pentagon transfer programs, there are now a lot more of them.
(And see this.)
Huffington Post notes:
Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper published an essay arguing that the current epidemic of police brutality is a reflection of the militarization (his word, not mine) of our urban police forces, the result of years of the “war on drugs” and the “war on terror. Stamper was chief of police during the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999, and is not a voice that can be easily dismissed.
And Jamie Douglas notes:
Ever since Ronald Reagan in 1981 helped draw up the Military Cooperation With Law Enforcement Act, quickly passed by a very cooperative congress, effectively circumventing the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 by codifying military cooperation with law enforcement, the military has been encouraged to give any and all law enforcement agencies unfettered access to all military resources, training and hardware included. The military equipment was designed to be used by American fighting forces in combat with “the enemy,” but since a law was passed in 1994, the Pentagon has been able to donate all surplus war materiel to America’s police departments. The National Journal has compiled a number of statistics showing that in the first three years after the 1994 law came into effect, the “Department of Offense” stocked police departments with 3800 M-16 assault rifles, 2185 M-14’s, 73 grenade launchers, and 112 armored personnel carriers, as well as untold number of bayonets, tanks, helicopters, and even some airplanes.
Regardless who will be in power in the future, the militarization of the police will continue. After all, who wants to appear as being soft on crime? These days, a chief of police’s office is like a doctor’s office, but instead of getting swamped with drug salesmen, they have very congenial visits with the merchants of popular oppression, the salesmen of weapons, various chemical agents, Tasers, body armor, and all kinds of tracking software, surveillance gear, and anything else the department may need for crowd control and to infiltrate dissidents, which are no more than US citizens wanting to restore the republic to its rightful place.
The government treats copyright infringers as terrorists, and swat teams have been deployed against them. See this, this, this and this.
***
It’s not just intellectual property. The government is widely using anti-terror laws to help giant businesses … and to crush those who speak out against their abusive practices, labeling anyone who speaks out as a potential bad guy.
Remember:
- Journalists are considered terrorists in modern America.
- Peaceful protest is considered terrorism. As one example, the FBI treated the peaceful protesters at the Occupy protests as terrorists. More here and here
- Americans have lost virtually all of our Constitutional rights
- The U.S. government considers the entire world – including American soil – to be a battlefield
As Greenwald writes:
Ultimately, police militarization is part of a broader and truly dangerous trend: the importation of War on Terror tactics from foreign war zones onto American soil. American surveillance drones went from Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia into American cities, and it’s impossible to imagine that they won’t be followed by weaponized ones. The inhumane and oppressive conditions that prevailed at Guantanamo are matched, or exceeded, by the super-max hellholes and “Communications Management Units” now in the American prison system. And the “collect-it-all” mentality that drives NSA domestic surveillance was pioneered by Gen. Keith Alexander in Baghdad and by other generals in Afghanistan, aimed at enemy war populations.
***
As part of America’s posture of Endless War, Americans have been trained to believe that everything is justified on the “battlefield” (now defined to mean “the whole world”): imprisonment without charges, kidnapping, torture, even assassination of U.S. citizens without trials. It is not hard to predict the results of importing this battlefield mentality onto American soil, aimed at American citizens: “From Warfighter to Crimefighter.” The results have been clear for those who have looked – or those who have been subject to this – for years. The events in Ferguson are, finally, forcing all Americans to watch the outcome of this process.
I can remember the first time I handled a Mattel rifle in basic. I had a "seriously?" moment. Then, in comparing the muzzle opening of a S&W .38SP Combat Masterpiece to that of an M16 and thinking the latter seemed awfully small, even if it is a rifle, albeit not a "battle" rifle. I had not handled firearms of any type prior to military service. That the M16 didn't seem right was intuitive I guess.
When they actually want you to win, they'll give you one of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_garand
Otherwise, they just want you walking around on patrol, getting shot at and generating fees for Halliburton.
It would be easy to misunderstand the current collection of opinions and feelings among America's inflation and tax donkeys.
As far as I'm concerned, I'm happy to let the enemy continue to believe that we are sheep. I am happy to let them continue to play card after card.
Some aren't sheep . . . but most are sheep.
Ask a dozen Americans if they think something is going wrong with the country. Many will answer yes.
Then ask them if they would be willing to give up t.v. completely for 6 months so that they could use the time to read a number of books and articles that will bring them up to speed on what happened to America (including the Federal Reserve Act of 1913).
Wanna bet on how many would give up Dancing with the Stars and football ?
Next ask 100 cops if they have read the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution and books about these founding documents' history and meaning. There's NO way 5 out of 100 have done that.
And people wonder what the Hell hasn't happened and why ?
+1,000.
It's quite obvious what is going on. The lawless Fascist police state is using provocation to pick a fight. Then the lawless can scratch the itch they created with more Fascist police. The fact is "government" is escillating the symptoms and ignoring all else.
Trust in law enforcement is being shattered on purpose. Even Donkey Dick Holder wants to have a "review."
Cop soup.
the "strong" picking a fight with the "weak"?......
until you pink panty fanboys figure out you'll gonna be sucking the "man's" billy club, you is fucked.
stand up already.
stand up already.
After you, tough guy.
Cops are breaking the law.
Cops enforce "the law" they could care less whether "the law" is just.
Kinda like passing "a law" requiring everyone to buy a product or service, there are penalties for not doing what "the law" says to do...and "the law" always has enforcers...or there can be no law.
I don't pay much attention to 90% of "the laws", its a little game I play with them.
For 55yrs now ;-)
2/3 of the population are made up of 'rule followers' who respect whatever 'authority figures' they've been conditioned to obey. Its likely that these percentages are even higher for those in the police & military, which attracts a lot of former jock types. (Very physical, but limited capacity to think Big Picture or outside the box.)
People ask how the German people could folllow a mad man to their destruction in WW2 ?
That's how.
It takes very special people to control themselves around power, few have the inate humility to restrain themselves from abusing it or the courage and forthrightness to use it when its called for.
On a lighter note (and somewhat related) David Gregory, that paragon of journalistic "law & order" has called it quits.
Its gonna be a good night ;-)
Not quite quits, nmewn. Apparently taking over at Meet the Press, or some other such fluffery.
It takes very special people to control themselves around power,
"If men are good, you don't need government; if men are evil or ambivalent, you don't dare have one."
-- Robert LeFevre
The State has permanently decoupled from the People. The State exists to perpetuate its power - nothing more. The People granted a monopoly on using Force to the State in very limited circumstances. The State now interprets this to mean a monopoly on Force at all times when the vested interest of the State is challenged.
I hope all the gun-grabbing Progressives are watching this asshat convention in Ferguson. Unbridled State power can fall into unexpected hands. Evicting Bundy in Nevada and killing unarmed kids in Ferguson are just heads and tails of the same coin.
“The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.”
- Unknown
I'd like to see some white groups go to Ferguson and stand with the locals. Yes, this is the same battle as Bundy Ranch. Cops commit violent crimes with impunity against those they are sworn to protect and never get prosecuted. This must change.
Yeah, I'm sick and tired of people that call themselves "liberty lovers" or "Tea Partiers" cheering on the police in Ferguson. If you're the kind of person that suffers from this shitty version of Stockholm syndrome simply because the militarized police isn't used against you (because the police will never come for you, right?!), you need to turn in your liberty card immediately.
I am totally awed at the amout of stupid contained in this one post.
You should win a prize.
Hint: Neo-con Govt. lovers are not Tea Party any more than the lefty govt. lovers are.
Give up the partisan brainwashing and do some reading.
well said both of you
Treasonous and murderous DC US gun and badge thugs, cops, should not be allowed to live comfortably and unmolested in our American communities.
If they want to be thieving and murderous thugs, then they should live away from and isolated from the American people, the victims of their deceit and treachery.
An American, not US subject.
The Four Rs
Rejection: Quit paying, quit obeying, quit playing
Revolution: It is inevitable, so prepare, as they are.
Retribution: The guilty must answer for their crimes against the American people and the Constitution.
Restoration: Restore the American people, country and Constitutional republic.
So I went over and took a stroll in HuffPo land today to maintain a variety of viewpoints. I want to see all the perspectives, and ZH has become a community of people who, for the most part, agree with each other. So I went with an open mind. Now I am scared.
The comment which scared me most:
"No this is the same government that backed off from Cliven Bundy and his merry band of armed men who were planning on using women and children as human shields, because the government didn't want anyone to get hurt."
This comment was made in seriousness, and it is a stunner. The person making this comment is convinced that the federal government is the answer to the problem of local police abuse (this is clear from earlier parts of the exchange in the thread on HuffPo). What is scariest, however, is seeing that the propaganda used as a justification of the slaughter of Gaza is now being used on Americans. The Bundy group is now being presented as a group worthy of the same treatment the zionists have given to Gaza. My blood chills seeing this inside US borders.
I don't know if this person commenting is on .gov payroll or if it is an honest sheep convinced by the propaganda, but the fact that this is propaganda seems clear to me. The current situation cannot continue much longer without the social fabric coming unglued entirely.
"The current situation cannot continue much longer without the social fabric coming unglued entirely."
Already beyond repair.
Well I get your point however that statement in and of itself is accurate enough. I remain mystified as to how the gov brought itself to back down. It actually scares me a little because it is the only time I can recall they ever did. I was expecting a blackhawk assault on his house for the few weeks after they packed up. No exaggeration, I was at Ruby Ridge when they lit it up, black hekipcopters and all. Waco, ditto but worse. They have never backed down so I have no idea how Clive got the free pass aside from they really did not want the confrontation.
What it makes me suspect is they are so close to dropping the iron fist on the whole country they didn't want tp get sidetracked on a pissant suabble over cows and show their hand. Ferguson a clearer picture of that.
But yes whoever made that comment has some serious selective amnesia to pull that massive departure from the norm and hold it up as evidence of benevolence. The people who work for the government (not shills just rank and file dumb fatties) often have that disposition, they punch clocks and live in the bubble and think themselves good people and maybe they even are, so they cannot fathom nor acheive cognition of the abuses those in the private sector see clearly. Huffpo comments is mostly government workers, school teachers or owl counters and such.
ZH has its share of fucking morons too though. No political orientation has a monopoly on stupid. About to celebrate my fourth year anniversary here (as a registered trollbox pundit, pretty sure I was the first one here though honestly, remember it being backwater fringe for sure), and is proof positive that on a long enough timeline, the average IQ of every good site drops to zero.
Still beats the shit out of Huffpo.
Carry on, bitchez.
"The effects of Israeli theory and technology on other countries can hardly be overestimated.
Forces choosing to employ Israeli-cultivated military techniques ultimately begin to alter their political and social circumstances. Therefore, countries all over the world are increasingly "Palestinizing" (or "Israelizing") their conditions. Both sides -- seller and buyer -- become partners in the development of a form of future war between the state and civil resistance groups." - Yotam Feldman
The affects of Jewish and Zionist disproportionate political, financial, and media power can hardly be over-estimated, and can not be discussed in or by the media at all.
worse, the media will tell you these are all positive contributions... civiliation, right?
This is israel, here is footage of the idf sniping children. This is an abomination: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUibXSgILv0&sns=em And these psychopaths have been training american police? Perfect.
Ferguson Protests are beginning to be organized across the land.
Attend one with your rifle in the open like the Redneck Wal-Marteens.
When you work so hard to turn middle-class neighborhoods into little versions of Gaza, you have to turn your police force into the IDF to protect your ass.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO we no longer blame BUSH Jr.? Now we blame Reagan??????? How effin desperate.
I blame you for being a fucking retard. You were a fucking retard under Reagan. You were a fucking retard under Bush. You are a fucking retard under Obama.
You are one fucking retard under God, inexcusable, with chicken mcnuggets for balls.
http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2014/08/15/for-those-of-you-who-are-ke...
"SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO we no longer blame BUSH Jr.? Now we blame Reagan??????? How effin desperate."
I don't blame anyone. I KNOW that the Rothschild thieving and Unconstitutional Federal Reserve bank and bankster parasites and their pol and crat puppets are to blame for the whole treasonous mess.
"Guillotine the Fed."
An American, not US subject.
Muddy: It's not partisan ...
Reagan, H. Bush, Clinton, W. Bush and Obama are ALL responsible. See? Doesn't matter if it's GOP or Dems ... they're ALL corrupt.
they're ALL corrupt
...as are you and the rest of us.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"
" they're ALL corrupt
mayhem_korner: "...as are you and the rest of us.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? "
Are you a little . . . . dense ?
What next ?
"Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were resonsible for the deaths of millions of people."
mayhem_korner: "Nobody's perfect. . . . . . Except the Lord."
To summarize your point:
Got it.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/israelis-army-mistreatment-of-palestinian-c...
So whats the answer George?
Cut the funding ...Hard.
MRAPS or your pension.
Easy choice.
As of now, it is ours to answer. The game does not have years or months---time waits for no man. It is now shit or get off the pot. Milestones
I've posted it before but I'll post it again: see the documentary "The Lab" by young Israeli journalist/filmmaker Yotam Feldman. The documentary depicts, among other things, Israeli's use of 'warfare' in Gaza to experiment with various new technologies for asymmetric warfare.
short clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4CehqWcEk4
short version: Al Jazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2014/05/lab-2014547542352631...
entire version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn08sgzLN9g
get 'em while they last
http://www.amazon.com/Israeli-Civilian-Mask-Nato-Filter/dp/B0002XJ2OU/
and while you're at it, air-drop a few for your countrymen in need and under siege
As there, so here !
The Iron Lab, for mice-pls.
FURGAZA!!!!!!!!
...Need to build tunnels underneath Ferguson...