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Police Militarization In Ferguson, Missouri
By Walter Olson of Overlawyered
Police Militarization In Ferguson, Missouri
Why armored vehicles in a Midwestern inner suburb? Why would cops wear camouflage gear against a terrain patterned by convenience stores and beauty parlors? Why are the authorities in Ferguson, Mo. so given to quasi-martial crowd control methods (such as bans on walking on the street) and, per the reporting of Riverfront Times, the firing of tear gas at people in their own yards? (“‘This my property!’ he shouted, prompting police to fire a tear gas canister directly at his face.”) Why would someone identifying himself as an 82nd Airborne Army veteran, observing the Ferguson police scene, comment that “We rolled lighter than that in an actual warzone“?
As most readers have reason to know by now, the town of Ferguson, Mo. outside St. Louis, numbering around 21,000 residents, is the scene of an unfolding drama that will be cited for years to come as a what-not-to-do manual for police forces. After police shot and killed an unarmed black teenager on the street, then left his body on the pavement for four hours, rioters destroyed many local stores. Since then, reportedly, police have refused to disclose either the name of the cop involved or the autopsy results on young Michael Brown; have not managed to interview a key eyewitness even as he has told his story repeatedly on camera to the national press; have revealed that dashcams for police cars were in the city’s possession but never installed; have obtained restrictions on journalists, including on news-gathering overflights of the area; and more.
The dominant visual aspect of the story, however, has been the sight of overpowering police forces confronting unarmed protesters who are seen waving signs or just their hands.
If you’re new to the issue of police militarization, which Overlawyered has covered occasionally over the past few years, the key book is Radley Balko’s, discussed at this Cato forum:
Federal grants drive police militarization. In 2012, as I was able to establish in moments through an online search, St. Louis County (of which Ferguson is a part) got a Bearcat armored vehicle and other goodies this way. The practice can serve to dispose of military surplus (though I’m told the Bearcat is not military surplus, but typically purchased new — W.O.) and it sometimes wins the gratitude of local governments, even if they are too strapped for cash to afford more ordinary civic supplies (and even if they are soon destined to be surprised by the high cost of maintaining gear intended for overseas combat).
As to the costs, some of those are visible in Ferguson, Mo. this week.
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i don't know how well our military would stand up against a well armed modern army of any number. it may be just old leftover remnants of training from wwii and korea. but we learned how to clear our fields of fire removing mounds of bodies. otc learned this could be done with accurate artillery.
now they learn sensitivity training for females and homosexuals. god help us if we get in a toe to toe slug out against an equal. i don't know how many have the stones to do the hard thing.
older officers and men who fought in korea can tell you stories of being under shell fire, armor attack and then your positions overrun with division sized mass assaults. from what the younger soldiers tell me of their training, this is not being taught because the force and combination of combined arms make it unlikely, but the fog of wars can get thick quick. another thing, women in the infantry is just pc as hell, but women will make the line weaker if it gets down to it. women are to practical to stand their ground when it appears stupid to do so. men have something inside them that will hold on no matter how impractical. just an observation of far more than 50 years and a lot of military history.
We may soon find out if Uncle Sam tries to wrestle a bear for Crimea...
they may have to dust off some old 70 year old nco's to hand down their knowledge. i know a few myself that would probably go for free and a lot of old officers with cib's still have kerosene in their veins.
I'd love to visit Crimea. Not sure I'd want to go fight alongside Nazis.
This is just practice for the fallout from the coming crash...
All the black folks know that the cop was in the right. They are just welfare people taught to lie and complain from an early age to get stuff from the gov't. They want some freebies. That's all.
The ignorant white folks who don't see this as just another con for money are pathetic.
Hey Ceymore, on your next break say hello to Cass Sunstein for me.
Cop was right to shoot an unarmed man to death?
Really?
You are an imbecile.
video shows he charged the cop.
right as it came over the radio he robbed a convenience store.
I'm assuming this post is satire, but sadly it echoes much that others have stated here over the last couple days.
Just more direct.
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever." A George Orwell quote, from his novel 1984.
From the sequel, '2014'
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a finger wagging in a human face— forever."
- - Kalifornia Nanny Fascism, Berkeley\Mill Valley version. Fusty old softball dykes backed with storm troopers.
LOL!
Love your rephrasing of O'Brian's quote...
"...the area; and more."
What kind of grammatical bastardisation is that?
I want to be one of the first to go on record to predict Capt. Ron Johnson will soon be on his way to meet with President Obama. This will allow the President to make a forceful statement flanked by Johnson and community leaders as to how tragic this all is and chalk it up to racism pure and simple. Many Americans who have been the target of a swat team raid, myself included, will point to a larger factor and one that the President has been complacent in and even encouraged to develop and that is the continued militarizing of Americas police forces.
This has continued during the six years Obama has been in office. Police have moved from the mission of "to serve and protect" to waging a war against enemies like terrorism, drugs, alcohol, and crime. Sadly, the American people have been caught in the crossfire. Spinning this event with a message that serves the President does not lessen the role of Obama and the NSA in moving us further down the path to becoming an Orwellian state. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/08/obama-to-meet-with-ferguson-hero....
The ACLU (Yeah, I know, fuck the ACLU) report that between 2011 and 2012 80% of all SWAT raids were to serve a fucking SEARCH WARRANT.
What. The. Fuck.
The ACLU was a useful tool of the left for a long time but once the left got dictatorial power they no longer need the ACLU and the ACLU has been fighting back few lawyers at a time. Seems maybe some of them figured out who the useful idiots were.
"After police shot and killed an unarmed black teenager on the street",
Dont make that worthless piece of shit out to be innocent...its good hes dead.
You forgot the "Sieg Heil", Klanman. Embrace that love for the fascist state. Kill dudes for thinking about attempting to turnstyle jump! Elminate them, right? Just eliminate them.
Speaking of worthless...
Since you seem to have such good judgement on who is worthy of life and death why don't you go do the dirty work?
Got coward anyone?
"The question is does a person deserve to die, but do we deserve to kill him."
-quoted from a retiring MO state representative.
They looted the McDonalds half an hour ago.
Get this, they are smoking cigs throwing them live on ground and GRILLING at the QuickTrip gas station.
There are underground tanks there still.
And, they are calling for a nationwide boycott of QuickTrip! Uh they burnt it down.
these people are out of their minds.
They want the Governor to arrest the officer. Governors can't throw people in jail. They want the prosecutor gone because his father was a St. Louis police officer killed in the line of duty.
This will be Trayvon 2, lies, fake witnesses, fired chief of police, new prosecutors.
the whole thing is AGENDA right out of a Marxist playbook
They all did, LAPD too.
You know what that means: they learned how to finance it all with drug profits--probabaly through whatever bank replaced BCCI (all of them?).
Uncle Sam runs the drug trade, and he uses it to bust up the ghettos. Documented fact, but we don't talk about those things here. Because Black mothers get free rice.
They are here to fight poverty!
Poverty is winning on points and we are in the last round. Good luck.
BREAKING:
Autopsy released. Brown shot 6 times
thankfully none in the back
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/us/michael-brown-autopsy-shows-he-was-...
No doubt about it, the Feds want "in", and Communist Julian Bond is close friend to comrade Eric Holder.
The answers to your questions "why this?" and "why that?" don't need convoluted and complicated explanations. It's very simple.
"an opportunity to train men and test equipment and tactics."
So why do we have to 'train', 'test' and develop 'tactics'?
Let me refer you to a story on ZH, that was up yesterday, titled:
"Why The Fed Can't, And Won't, Let The Stock Market Crash"
Won't is a very strong word, but just because the FED 'won't' let the market crash doesn't mean the market isn't going to crash.
How many times have I told my wife, "Honey, I won't go to your mother's on Sunday. No way." I went.
And when the American stock markets crash, maybe not the first week or the first month, there eventually will be bloody riots all over America that will make what's going on in Ferguson look like a Labor Day Picnic.
this balko does not mention the hisotry of gendarme ---domestic army.
there is plenty of history of rasining army style policing with its own beauracracy---ours is the dhs, and the dhs and fbi can come in and tell the localized military police what to do.
the only interesting quesiton to ask is WHAT HAPPENS WHEN STATE/LOCAL POLICE DON'T COOPERATE WITH DHS ORDERS.
Then, the bluff is called, they should have learned that in Maricopa Co., AZ with the HIGH Sheriff sending the Feds home.
Didn't we militarize the police precisely so they could quell disturbances like the one in Ferguson? Instead, all that hardware (and the provocative actions of the police using it) has only served to enflame the situation further. Clearly, militarization has been a giant step in the wrong direction.
Typical American Lib misdirection - the police are not "militarized", they just have better equipment to deal with a more dangerous and out of control population of Negros, who are protected from crimes like looting and rioting and who are increasingly begining to understand that the declining White political power is more and more paralyzed and afraid to control them. More long hot summers coming up.
Why does Obama always try to imitate a retarded person?
folks commenting on this.. using terms like "marxist" and making it about race... ya... sorry, but you don't get it. probably never will either.
marxism is a hollow boogeyman. Monopoly is what its about
this is the standard evolution of all governments, folks. the facade of government is only a strawman target, they serve the priveledge class. the priveledged class ALWAYS fortifies the government facade with weapons, power, laws, that they inevitably use that force.. to PROTECT THEIR PRIVELDGE..
this isnt about shrub or obummer or race, or marxism.. this is just the tinisest tip of the iceberg.. of priveldge defending its status against, WE THE PEOPLE
we ARE ALL MICHAEL BROWN
What in the hell do you mean "We are all Michael Brown" - a boot lipped, bullying thug that would kill a policeman given the slightest provocation ? No, we are all not Mr. Brown, thank God.
O bend over has a way of punching the last word in a sentence or phrase that makes him sound like an authority figure on anything for about 2 minutes until you realize what he is saying is complete bullshit meant to rabble rouse. I really can't listen to more than one sentence of the fudge packer in chief. The plan is remakable simple, print like hell to enrich the elite, devalue everyone else, and whammo, riots in the streets that need federal intervention to maintain control. Works like a dream each and every time. Absolutely a great substitute for a free market economy if you absolutely positively must maintain control at any cost.
It's all just a big charade until the white guys in the suburbs have had enough and start to unload.
I think it is more like Civilian Niggerazation in Ferguson that is the problem.
Looks like dressing up cops as storm troopers is not having the intimidating effect it was supposed to have.
So many questions and so much human blindness:
Biology doesn't care if different things were declared equal. It doesn't even care, if states and empires were built on the lie of equality.
Society follows biology. 3rd world population: 3rd world society. Enjoy it, goy!
Haiti. Jamaica. South Africa. Detroit. Cincinnatti. New Orleans. Riots/looting.
One common denominator.
Militarization (call it what it is -Fascism) is 95% because of the department of homeland security, that unaccountable bastion of bullshit conjured during a crisis to chase ghosts.
It's DHS - yet another Bush abomination to take the place of failed drugs for the war on profit.
There is not enough room in this country for DHS and freedom. Tell your "representative" to end it, if yours voted for it throw the bums out no questions asked.
Because after all, a militarized police force would never be used to oppose the national guard in a coup attempt, or a way around posse comitatus, or as a separate military force employed by some faction in Washington, DC (cough. Conservative republicans, cough).
Because of these Folks, folks.