I have done some additions and editing, but full credit to Reuters, Salon, Alternet, et al.
Police recruiting videos, as in those from California’s Newport Beach Police Department and New Mexico’s Hobbs Police Department, actively play up not the community angle but militarization as a way of attracting young men with the promise of Army-style adventure and high-tech toys. Policing, according to recruiting videos like these, isn’t about calmly solving problems; it’s about you and your boys breaking down doors in the middle of the night.
SWAT’s influence reaches well beyond that. Take the increasing adoption of battle-dress uniforms (BDUs) for patrol officers. These militaristic, often black, jumpsuits, Bickel fears, make them less approachable and possibly also more aggressive in their interactions with the citizens they’re supposed to protect.
Where does the monty for a "Mine Resistant Vehicle", cruising a residential street, come from? --the $425,000 MRAP comes as a gift, courtesy of Uncle Sam, from one of our far-flung counterinsurgency wars. The nasty little secret of policing’s militarization is that taxpayers are subsidizing it through programs overseen by the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Justice Department.
One nation under SWAT: How America’s police became an occupying force
If the situation in Ferguson has taught us one thing, it's that things are getting very, very scary
TOPICS: TOMDISPATCH.COM, FERGUSON POLICE SHOOTING, POLICE, POLICE MILITARIZATION, NEWS,POLITICS NEWS
(Credit: Reuters/Philip Andrews)
This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch.
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