Militarization

Training The Warrior Cop: US Empire Is A Laboratory For Militarized Policing

July 11, 2020 By Morgan Artyukhina Sputnik News. Educate! MIliarized police, Militarization, Police abuse

In addition to the paramilitary attitude that any civilian is a potential terrorist insurgent, US police have brought numerous tactics and weapons back from their Israel trips for use against US civilians, such as the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) infamous Muslim surveillance program, which was modeled in part on Israeli surveillance of Palestinians in the West Bank. Another is the chemical weapon “skunk water,” a noxious liquid sprayed from hoses that imparts a foul smell on anything it touches that will not disappear for days. Humans struck by skunk water can experience nausea, vomiting and skin rashes. While US police have not yet been reported using skunk water, some police forces have bought the substance, including the St. Louis police in the aftermath of the 2014 uprisings in nearby Ferguson, Missouri, that followed the police shooting of Michael Brown.

De-Militarizing The United States

July 2, 2020 Melvin Goodman, Counterpunch. Create! CIA, Militarization, Pentagon, US State Department

The reliance on military instruments of power to implement foreign policy has expanded the role of the Department of Defense at the expense of the Department of State. The State Department’s budget is less than one-tenth of the defense budget, and smaller than the budget of the intelligence community. There are more soldiers and sailors in military marching bands than there are Foreign Service Officers. The decline of the Agency for International Development, and President Bill Clinton’s dissolution of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the United States Information Service have contributed to the overall decline of civilian influence in national security policy.

Chicago’s Neighborhoods Will Remain “Occupied” Until The City Defunds CPD

June 26, 2020 BobVanecko, Southside Weekly. Educate! Chicago, Defund the police, Militarization, Police

The book Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power, published last year, details the history of the Chicago Police Department’s quasi-military occupation of the city’s Black communities from the race riots of 1919 through the present day. Author Simon Balto, an assistant professor of African American history at the University of Iowa, demonstrates that “there is not a time in Chicago’s history where the city was home to large percentages of black people, and in which they had a smoothly functioning relationship with the CPD.” While most histories of mass incarceration start around the “War on Drugs” or “War on Crime” eras, Balto shows that those years’ massive investments towards expanding and militarizing America’s police forces had such devastating effects precisely because the police had already gained decades of experience working as the hired enemies of Black people, in the words of James Baldwin.

Who Supplied The Weapons Used Against #BLM Protesters?

June 12, 2020 War Resisters International. Educate! Chemical Weapons, Militarization, Police violence

In response to the murder of George Floyd by a member of the Minneapolis police department on 25th May, thousands of people across the United States joined protests demanding justice for his killing, radical reform of police forces, and driving home the message that Black Lives Matter. Many of these protests face militarised police responses, including the use of rubber bullets, sting balls, stun grenades, battons, police charges, and chemical weapons like tear gas and pepper spray. Twitter users have photographed a large number of canisters that were fired during the protest. Many appear to have been produced by a company called Defense Technology, a subsidiary of a company called The Safariland Group (click here for our profile on this company), which owns a number of companies producing a wide range of equipment and weapons used by law enforcement. Weapons from other companies appear to be produced by Combined Tactical Systems (our profile on CTS is available here) and FN Herstal USA.

The Roots Of Violent Protest: Violent Cops

June 10, 2020 Erik Loomis, Lawyers Guns Money Blog. Educate! Militarization, Police violence, Protests, Rebellion2020

You will be shocked, simply SHOCKED, to learn that after decades of researching effective methods for police response to large crowd actions, researchers have found — and you’re never going to believe this — that when cops show up in military gear and get aggressive, they actually make protest violence worse! That’s one of the findings in “New Directions in Protest Policing,” a 2015 paper that reviews decades upon decades of police history and the conclusions of multiple separate commissions. Police that dress like they’re going to war, who try to control First Amendment expression rather than facilitate it, and who act in arbitrary ways can inflame violence and jeopardize their own safety and that of the public. The paper was written by Edward R. Maguire, an Arizona State University professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and it dives all the way back to the nation’s founding and the civil unrest that led to the creation of the United States.

How Endless War Contributes To Police Brutality

June 7, 2020 Bonnie Kristian, Responsible Statecraft. Educate! 1033 program, Militarization, Police violence, Wars and Militarism

The indefensible death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers and the indiscriminate police violence in subsequent protests have returned police misconduct to the center of our national conversation. It is not a conversation we may quickly or easily conclude. The problems in American policing are multitude and systemic, matters of both policy and culture. Much of this can only be corrected at the state or local level, and as there are around 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, this is a monumental task. In very few cases could sweeping federal action affect any substantive reform But one way in which Washington is directly implicated in police brutality is its contribution to the militarization of local police departments through the Pentagon’s 1033 Program and the so-called “war on terror” more broadly.

Unmarked Security Forces In DC Spark Fear

June 5, 2020 By Katie Bo Williams, Defense One. Educate! Militarization, Police abuse, Transparency, Washington DC

The presence of unmarked federal law enforcement officers, dressed in paramilitary uniforms and wearing no identifying insignia, quickly spread among protesters marching through Washington, D.C.’s streets on Tuesday and Wednesday, causing concerned protesters and officials to ask: Who are they? In some locations, security personnel refused to identify themselves to journalists and protesters who asked which agency sent them, answering only that they worked for the federal government. In other places, they identified themselves as working for the Department of Justice. Some carried rifles, or were equipped with body armor, riot shields, and pepper spray canisters. Two such clad security members in Washington on Tuesday night identified themselves to Defense One as part of a specialized emergency response force run by the Bureau of Prisons — part of the Justice Department — to help maintain security at correctional facilities. They and others are part of what’s known as the bureau’s Special Operations Response Teams, or SORTs.

Black Alliance For Peace – Baltimore Demand End To Policing “Surge”

January 21, 2020 Staff, Blackallianceforpeace.com Resist! Baltimore, Militarization, Police

JANUARY 7, 2020—Baltimore City is one of 7 cities, including Detroit, Albuquerque, Cleveland, Kansas City, Memphis and Milwaukee, selected for the Trump Administration’s “Operation Relentless Pursuit” which is intended to “surge” federal, state and local resources into cities where violent [horizontal] crime rates remain high. This newest version of the so-called war on crime must be seen for what it is – the latest incantation of the State’s relentless war on Baltimore’s Black working class and poor and should be categorically rejected by Baltimore’s public officials,” according to BAP organizer Vanessa Beck.

The New ‘Black Codes’

December 5, 2019 Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com Educate! Militarization, Racism

The police forces in impoverished urban communities, equipped with military-grade weapons and empowered to harass and kill largely at will, along with mass incarceration, are the principal tools for the social control of the poor. There is little pretense of justice and even less of protection and safety. The corporate state and our oligarchic rulers fear a backlash from those they abandoned in deindustrialized enclaves across the country, what Malcolm X called our “internal colonies.” The daily brutality and terror keep the poor, especially poor people of color, in bondage.

Neoliberalism And Evangelicalism Is Teaming Up To Remilitarize Latin America

November 30, 2019 By Paul Antonopoulos, Ahtribune.com Educate! China, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Latin America, Militarization, Russia

Latin America appears to be in a state of chaos with a struggle emerging between the so-called independent socialist Pink Tide countries and the neoliberal conservative Blue Tide countries. Revolts against neoliberal policies have been seen in Chile and Ecuador and a coup has recently taken place in Bolivia. Latin America is certainly remilitarizing. However, there is also a Great Power element to this, with the U.S. desperately holding onto its unilateral hegemony over what it considers its Latin American “backyard” in the face of growing Chinese and Russian economic and military interests in the Western Hemisphere.

Abe’s Mission Unaccomplished: Pushing To Revise Japan’s Pacifist Charter

November 16, 2019 Linda Sieg, Reuters.com Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Japan, Militarization

TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe surged back to power seven years ago, pledging to bolster Japan’s defenses in response to a growing threat from China and aiming to amend the pacifist constitution. Now on track to become Japan’s longest serving premier, Abe has kept his first promise. The second remains elusive. That means Japan, which U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized over what he called an “unfair” security alliance, still faces limits on acting as a full-fledged American ally.

Trump Shifts From Ending “Forever Wars” To Sending Tanks Into Syria’s Oil Fields

October 31, 2019 Bill Van Auken, Wsws.org Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Middle East, Militarization, Oil, Syria, US Imperialism

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper Friday confirmed that Washington would leave military forces in Syria to maintain control of the country’s principal oil and gas fields. The Pentagon is “considering how we might reposition forces in the area in order to make sure that we secure the oil fields,” Esper said. His remarks came at the close of a meeting of NATO defense ministers that expressed bitter resentment within Europe over US President Donald Trump’s green lighting of a Turkish invasion of northeast Syria earlier this month along with his announcement that US troops would be pulled out of the region.

Democracy Shouldn’t Be About Celebrating Military Overlords

October 25, 2019 William J. Astore, Truthout.org Educate! Democracy, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Militarization

When Americans think of militarism, they may imagine jackbooted soldiers goose-stepping through the streets as flag-waving crowds exult; or, like our president, they may think of enormous parades featuring troops and missiles and tanks, with warplanes soaring overhead. Or nationalist dictators wearing military uniforms encrusted with medals, ribbons, and badges like so many barnacles on a sinking ship of state. (Was Donald Trump only joking recently when he said he’d like to award himself a Medal of Honor?) And what they may also think is: that’s not us.

Oakland Activists Pushing Efforts To Block Federal Militarization Of Local Police

October 2, 2019 By Mike Maharrey, Blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com Resist! Militarization, Militarized police, Oakland, Police

OAKLAND, Calif. (Sept. 30, 2019) – Activists in Oakland have ramped up efforts to take a first step toward limiting the impact of federal programs that militarize local police. American Friends Service Committee (AFCS) will host a community town hall on policing and military equipment in support of efforts to pass a city ordinance requiring approval by the Oakland City Council for the acquisition of military equipment, and use policies and reporting for military equipment that the Oakland Police Department has or obtains in the future. As AFCS points out, “Oakland has no policy for the acquisition or use of militarized equipment.

More Than A Wall

September 19, 2019 Todd Miller, Tni.org Educate! Borders, Immigration, Militarization, Military Budget, Profit, Undocumented

This report examines the role of the world’s largest arms (as well as a number of other security and IT) firms in shaping and profiting from the militarization of US borders. Through their campaign contributions, lobbying, constant engagement with government officials, and the revolving door between industry and government, these border security corporations and their government allies have formed powerful border–industrial complex that is a major impediment to a humane response to migration.

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