Why did it take people so long to be aware of the militarization of local police forces?

[kentuck]

Were we waiting for tanks and artillery to shoot holes in the roofs of our homes?

Why could we not see the danger to our liberties?

[tk2kewl]

1. good question

[unblock]

2. i first noticed it in manhattan right after 9/11.

complaining back then was pissing into the wind.

[alsame]

7. Yep. And walking through

Grand Central or Penn Station was surreal, machine guns were everywhere.

[arcane1]

3. It came up here and there after the Boston bombings

but I think that was more accepted because of the terrorism aspect.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. And why did we let the 4th Amendment go?

And why did we sit still for the already-written-before-911 "Patriot" Act?

And why did we accept Pelosi taking impeachment off the table?

And why did we stand behind Mr. "Look Forward"?

The warning sirens have been going off non-stop for more than a decade.

[Hoyt]

5. It happened in Macon Ga in 1970s when racist Mayor acquired an armored military vehicle.

To some extent it is a response to arming up of citizenry. Both need to stop.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. there are 10 million things going wrong at any given time with legislation/government/lackthereof

people can't always be aware of everything, else we wouldnt have jobs or families

[merrily]

8. I woke up right good the night and day they searched for Dzohar Tsarnaev.

Was I the only one who saw the quasi-tanks on the streets of Watertown? The only one who knew that a search for a wounded 19 year old shut down seven cities and towns, including a major US city like Boston, on a work day?

Before that, I had inklings For example, the Fourth of July concert in Boston had morphed from a civilian celebration of independence to one with a strong military presence in uniform; civilians dressed in what seems like every piece of flag-themed clothing ever manufactured or homemade on this earth; and a lot of glorification of the military.

As I watched that change become more pronounced year by year, found it chilling.

[hifiguy]

9. The high profile of this story

and the fact that reporters got caught up in the lunacy of the war games and saw/reported it first hand.

[Anansi1171]

10. Project for a New American Century...

...aka Project for a NAZI American Century. Per Goebbels gotta have multiple levels of meaning for these grandiose and euphemistic names.

Clearly our worst fears are being realized and TPB are militarizing police to kill brown people over here just as "over there".

[handmade34]

11. one of the defects of human nature...

along with... why are we waiting until we are about to be devastated by climate change to start talking about it

my circle was talking about this stuff 40 years ago... people knew but we need the masses to be aware and act...

[libodem]

12. Because mainstream media is Corporate Media

That's why.

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[frazzled]

13. Why has it taken so long to be aware of racism in local police forces?

Let's not forget the core issue in this case--which many of us seem to have abandoned already: this incident, at its heart, is about the way young black males are profiled and arrested and more than even sometimes killed by the law enforcement officers who are supposed to protect them. All because they are walking in the street as young black males.

While the perception of militarization was a problem after the fact here, let's be clear about one thing: what we saw in the streets of Ferguson is not happening every day across America. That is to say: we have not seen armored vehicles and rifles going into communities and we have not seen newscasters' equipment dismantled and the reporters arrested the way they were in Ferguson. Most police departments are fairly well trained in crowd control, and even know how to conduct community policing. The military equipment was not the only, or even first, problem in the Ferguson PD. They clearly are out of control with or without those tools.

But what we saw happen to Michael Brown is happening in most every community, all the time, every day, and has been going on for years. Let's keep our eyes on the prize. And while we can walk and chew gum at the same time, let's put the issue that started this all at the forefront of our discussions: racism.

[Cleita]

14. Because we have a dysfunctional news media.

In the past we relied on media to keep us informed. For my first fifty years, there was always a daily newspaper in my life, first in my parents house and when I grew up I subscribed to the Los Angeles Times, which was pretty good for reporting what we needed to know. Then sometime at the end of the Clinton administration the paper went right wing propaganda as did the rest of what was left of the real news media. That's why, unless we see it with our own two eyes while out running errands or on alternate internet media, we are not informed. I'm surprised this got the press it did. Incidents have been happening around the country like this regularly and the professional media is usually absent.

[bluestateguy]

15. The media simply chose not to cover it

The issue had been raised since the mid-1990s', and not just by us commie leftists either.

[wickerwoman]

16. Not addressed by the news media but also normalised and even glorified by Hollywood.

How many TV shows and movies in the 1990s like Die Hard, Robocop, Bad Boys, etc. show police in quasi-military situations where they tear around in body armor throwing grenades and blowing shit up with just a casual one-liner and no regard for the safety of civilians?

I think they laid the groundwork for a change in understanding of what good police work is and what it looks like.

It just seems normal now that men in masks and body armor driving tanks show up to deal with any problem instead of Marge Gunderson from Fargo.

[4now]

18. When they came for the drug users, I wasn't a drug user so I didn't care

When they came for the "terrorists", I wasn't a "terrorist" so I didn't care.
or something like that.

[Exultant Democracy]

19. Things are the same as they ever were for black people...

[TransitJohn]

20. War on drugs made them think it was okay eom

n/t

[Boom Sound 416]

21. Nobody bitched during the Boston Marathon bombing

[kentuck]

22. "nobody"??

Really?

[Boom Sound 416]

23. Your're right.

I did.

[HereSince1628]

24. The assault on Occupy in the Bay Area was considered ok?

DUers have acknowledged the militarization for a long time.

Sheriff Arpaio's acquisitions of military equipment have been strongly criticized here.

[Octafish]

25. It got labeled ''Conspiracy Theory.''

Ask me for a link.

[Eleanors38]

26. Because it resulted from that "back-burner issue:" W.O.D.

And most people -- most Democrats -- were exquisitely cowed by the GOPer RW. Even now, most Democrats still let the hardware flow unimpeded from the military to Horse Pumble, Ohio.

Massive private prison system? WOD.
Massive influx of C. American immigrants? WOD.
Massive imprisonment of blacks? WOD.
Massive militarization of LEOs? WOD.
Massive degradation of civil rights? WOD.

Not bad for a back-burner issue.

[juxtaposed]

27. a lot of ppl. sit on their asses all day

and never deal in any actions or nvda's They live in little worlds that are not exposed to the world outside of the home.
They see things one the news and feel they can cast judgment ,, never being there? That's true here at times....