Why Do the (US) Police Have Tanks?

[ensho]

http://www.alternet.org/story/151528/why_do_the_police_have_tanks_the_strange_and_dangerous_militarization_of_the_us_police_force?akid=7211.270764.a7yJoi&rd=1&t=2


Why Do the Police Have Tanks? The Strange and Dangerous Militarization of the US Police Force

The federal government has supplied local police departments with military uniforms, weaponry, vehicles, and training.


-snip-

Shockingly, paramilitary raids that mirror the tactics of US soldiers in combat are not uncommon in America. According to an investigation carried out by the Huffington Post's Radley Balko, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement over the last 30 years, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units for routine police work. In fact, the most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.

Some 40,000 of these raids take place every year, and are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. And as demonstrated by the case of Aiyana Mo'nay Stanley-Jones, these raids have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries.

-long snip of timeline history of cops going from being cops to being nazi and guess who is in part of the timeline? KOCH-

We have created circumstances under which the American people are no longer individuals protected by the Bill of Rights, but rather "enemy combatants." The consequences of such a mindset have proven time and again to be lethal, as we now rely on military ideology and practice to respond to crime and justice. For some insight into the implications, one needn't look any further than minority communities, which have long been the victims of paramilitary forces posing as police officers. Black and Latino communities in the inner-cities of Washington DC, Detroit and Chicago have witnessed first-hand the deadly consequences of militarization on American soil. Military culture now permeates all aspects of our society. Does anyone really believe that heavily armed soldiers trained to kill are capable of maintaining an atmosphere of nonviolence?

It's important to remember that police officers are not responsible for instituting these policies. Over the last three decades local police departments supplied with military uniforms, weaponry, vehicles, and training, were told they were fighting a war on drugs, crime and terror. The politicians who instituted these policies are responsible for the militarization creeping into civilian law enforcement. What might the end result be if the distinction between police and military ceases to exist? The answer is a police state -- and certain segments of our society are already living in one.
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I have nothing printable to say

[LiberalFighter]

1. How much of the revenue (taxes) goes towards public safety

that is drained from other departments because of this?

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. k & r

There is hardly a single aspect of modern America that disturbs me more.

[Dreamer Tatum]

3. They're left over from when we were all rounded up by Bush

and put in concentration camps.

Oh wait, that didn't happen.

I am more concerned about cops hassling people for no reason than cops rolling around in tanks.

[Ian David]

4. I was once on the receiving end of cops using SWAT tactics to conduct a "fire safety inspection." nt

[gratuitous]

5. If you have a brand new shiny tool

My experience is that you look out for opportunities, appropriate or inappropriate, to use that tool. It happens from time to time that law enforcement acts as demolition crew to a house where nefarious deeds are suspected to be perpetrated. Mustn't take unnecessary chances, after all. Wrong house? Oh well. Better luck next time.

[Newest Reality]

6. Unrest is expected!

There are reports that predict the potential.

What does that tell us?

It is not like other countries are taking the fleecing and manipulation lightly, ey?

Sounds like an end-game, wake yourself up scenario. Hmmm. How many people are impacted by the machinations vs. how many people are enacting the transformation? Transformation to what? Look around.

[hifiguy]

7. American police grow to resemble the SS

more every day. The point, of course, is to have plenty of firepower (cops and mercenaries) for when the people have finally had enough and take to the streets. TPTB do NOT trust the uniformed military to fire on the people. They have no worries about cops or mercenaries gleefully mowing down the populace, however. There is no other conceivable explanation for things like this.

[msongs]

8. street gangs versus police gangs. same mentality nt

[nc4bo]

9. Nothing to say, it speaks for itself. nt

[Lurks Often]

10. They are not "tanks"

but lightly armored vehicles mostly used for raids on fortified drug houses. It's been years, but as I remember, back in the 90's there were drug dealers fortifying their drug houses to the point that a SWAT team with the handheld door rams could not force a door.

I can see a valid use for the vehicles as a means to force an entrance when more conventional ways have failed.



* A real tank is a heavily armored vehicle weighing in excess of 50 tons and is armed with a 105mm or bigger main gun and another 2-4 machine guns.

[blindpig]

11. Might as well be one....

if you are an unarmed civilian on the street.

Fuck the cops and the war on drugs.

[digitaln3rd]

16. Yeah, screw the cops - lets descend into anarchy.

:eyes:

Please.

[blindpig]

18. Not even sheep need sheepdogs....

but the owners do.

[CJvR]

20. The Sheep...

...don't need sheep dogs only as long as there are no wolves around.

[ensho]

12. if drugs were decrimed there would be no need to smash down doors

yes, arrest people for criminal acts but not for using/holding drugs.

[Deep13]

14. Yeah, but Lawrence, KS has one. nt

[AngryAmish]

13. Because they are jerks

[cyberpj]

15. Can you say Blackwater? er, uh... Xe (or whatever their new mask name is) See this from 2007:

Blackwater Training US Police

This article is from 2007, I'm sure they've spread their tactics far and wide since then.

I fear the increased violence used dealing with protestors, even war vets, could have something to do with this federally approved way for states to spend their homeland security funds.

I fear even more the implications of nationwide training of law enforcement by this particular contractor that does not appear to be subject to standard US laws.

====================================
Blackwater Training US Police

snip-
On October 14, the Washington Post ran a story, which included photographs from Blackwater's Moyock training center. However, what was most intriguing was a photograph of a police and military patch board at Blackwater's headquarters that indicated the police agencies that have sent their officers to Moyock for training.

Blackwater is secretive about its non-federal, as well as its foreign clients, which the Post pointed out includes Jordan, Azerbaijan, and Burkina Faso, but a WMR inspection of the photograph of the police agencies has yielded the following list of agencies that have used Blackwater for training:

1. Iowa Department of Natural Resources
2. Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff's Department
3. Matthews, North Carolina Police
4. Atlanta Police
5. Chillicothe, Ohio Police
6. Charleston, South Carolina Police
7. Port Chester, NY Police
8. Highland, Indiana Police
9. Unalaska, Alaska Police
10. Metropolitan Washington, DC Police
11. Charlottesville, Virginia Police
12. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (Dulles and Reagan National Airports)
13. St. Louis County Police (Missouri)
14. Queen Anne's County, Maryland Police
15. Prince George's County, Maryland Police
16. FBI SWAT Team
17. Gloucester Township, New Jersey Police
18. Tempe, Arizona Police
19. New York Police Department
20. Yonkers, New York Police
21. Fairfax County, Virginia Police
22. Maplewood, New Jersey Police
23. Gastonia, North Carolina Police
24. Tampa Police
25. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
26. DeKalb County, Georgia Police
27. Arlington County, Virginia Police
28. Baltimore Police
29. U.S. Coast Guard
30. Suffolk, Virginia Police
31. Franklin City, Virginia Police
32. Milford, Delaware Police
33. University of Texas Police
34. Norfolk, Virginia Police
35. Ottawa-Carleton, Canada Police
36. San Bernardino County, California Sheriff
37. Plattsburgh, New York Police
38. Chicago Police Department
39. Oregon State Police
40. Los Angeles Police Department
41. Tonawanda, New York Police
42. Special Forces of Colombia
43. Jacksonville, North Carolina Police
44. Harvey Cedars, New Jersey Police
45. Elmira, New York Police
46. Department of Corrections, New Jersey
47. Lexington, Kentucky Police
48. Willimantic, Connecticut Police
49. Georgia Department of Law Enforcement
50. City of Fairfax, Virginia Police
51. Alexandria, Virginia Police Special Operations
52. Illinois State Police
53. Dallas, Texas Police
54. Hamilton, Ohio Police
55. Morganton, North Carolina Police

A number of the police departments that have been trained by Blackwater have abysmal civil rights and police brutality records, most notably the Chicago Police and Illinois State Police, both cited by former Illinois Governor George Ryan as being guilty of police misconduct in his decision to commute the death sentences of Illinois' death row inmates. It was a decision that likely had much to do with his indictment by the Bush administration on corruption charges -- political misuse of the Department of Justice that has been seen in the indictments and investigations of Alabama former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman and HealthSouth former CEO Richard Scrushy, Qwest's former CEO Joseph Nacchio, Democratic campaign contributor Martha Stewart, Coastal Corporation's former Chairman and Democratic contributor Oscar Wyatt, and Democratic-leaning trial attorneys around the United States, as well as the firings of several U.S. Attorneys who refused to engage in political prosecutions, and a Justice Department workup on North Carolina presidential candidate John Edwards in 2004.

snip-

Citizens have a distinct opportunity of confronting their local elected city, county, and town officials over Blackwater training of their police officers. Local officials should be pressured to reveal the numbers and identities of officers trained by Blackwater, the subjects covered by the training, the revenues spent, and a public demand should be made to cease and desist in such training.


edited to add note: the original artical came from this site although a current search could not find it, I did find many new ones that are similar:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c6c_1197668932

[KG]

17. because we don't live in a police state.

:P

[CJvR]

19. I doubt they have...

...actual MBTs. More likely a few APCs for their SWAT teams.

As for why they have them - just go to any gun fair and have a look.

[Dawson Leery]

21. Read the Police magazines/blogs.

They openly discuss viewing ALL OF US as potential threats and treating us as such.
In this sense, I cannot oppose them being laid off.