Militarization

The Flow Of Military Equipment To Police Has Accelerated Under Biden

April 4, 2021 Stephen Semler, Substack. Educate! 1033 program, Joe Biden, Militarization, Police

The Pentagon’s 1033 program is the primary mechanism by which police acquire military hardware. Most of the items transferred are innocuous, but that’s only in terms of quantity; in terms of value, combat gear dominates the ledger. Not surprisingly the latter fact typically escapes police/DOD discourse. Matériel is what’s counted here. The values below reflect that of military hardware (“controlled” equipment) transferred through the 1033 program and not the office supplies or generators or t-shirts or whatever (“uncontrolled” equipment). Congress needs to pressure Biden to issue an executive order to 1) prevent future transfers; and 2) recall military equipment from police custody.

Militarized Law Enforcement Isn’t Protecting Us From Mass Shooters

April 2, 2021 It's Going Down. Educate! Colorado, Mass Shootings, Militarization, Police

On March 24, 2021, a man shot up a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, killing nine workers and shoppers and one police officer. I live nearby and heard about the shooting when a comrade sent me a local Libertarian’s livestream of the tragedy as it was happening. About five minutes into the livestream and roughly six minutes since the first shots were fired, four Boulder Police officers rushed into the store. They were met with what sounded like gunshots, then two of the officers ran out of the King Scopers entrance. This is likely the moment Officer Eric Talley was killed. For the next 45 minutes, SWAT from neighboring municipalities rallied outside of the King Soopers, but despite their advanced body armor, firearms, and training, they did not go inside.

US Border Imperialism Is A Bipartisan Affair

March 6, 2021 Kinjo Kiema, Waging Nonviolence. Educate! Border, Joe Biden, Militarization, US Imperialism

The images of kids in cages will be one the more enduring legacies of the Trump administration. However, it is also the case that Democrat and Republican administrations both contributed to the militarization of the border and amped up deportation mechanisms of the state for the last several decades. While, for example, former President Obama is widely known as the “deporter in chief” for deporting 3 million undocumented persons, there is a false sense among many that former President Trump and his administration is solely responsible for migration injustices. Part of this has to do with branding and image: Obama as the “cool” president, and Trump as the “tell-it-like-it-is-racist” president. But mostly, it has to do with the perception that Democrats and Republicans differ more than they actually do on policy, especially on defense, security and surveillance.

Are Urban Schools A Site of Occupation?

March 5, 2021 By Chetachukwu Agwoeme, Hood Communist. Educate! Black America, Cities, Militarization, Occupation, Schools

In the third season of Black Lightning, the fictional Black city of Freeland was living under a military occupation by the ASA (the quasi governmental organization occupying Freeland). Not only did the city have heavily armed troopers patrolling the streets, but also had troopers patrolling the schools– detaining anyone they deemed a threat – using violence if necessary. In episode four, students are in a classroom discussing similar military occupations in multiple countries around the world and their harmful effects on the people being occupied. Some students agree, but then others claim the ASA occupying their city might be a good thing, suggesting that the ASA’s presence comes with safety. As they are discussing, the ASA comes into the classroom to detain (and abduct) a student named Tavon, under the suspicion of having powers.

Capitol Riot Exploited To Expand The National Security State

January 25, 2021 Aaron Maté, Pushback. Resistance Report Capitol, Militarization, National Security State, Surveillance

The US national security state failed to prevent the pro-Trump mob attack on the Capitol. Yet instead of accountability, US intelligence officials are being emboldened via increased militarization, censorship, and surveillance. Max Blumenthal and Aaron Maté discuss the dangerous fallout. Rather than prioritize accountability for US intelligence officials’ failure to prevent the pro-Trump mob attack on the Capitol, the incident is instead being used to expand the national security state’s powers. Max Blumenthal, who witnessed the Capitol mob and reported on a key participant, discusses his coverage of the attack and the dangers of a militarized, myopic response.

Portland Drone Testing Facility Cancelled

November 11, 2020 Fight for the Future. Resist! Drones, Militarization, Portland, Verizon

Last week, the Port of Portland announced it would cancel a pending lease with Verizon for seven acres of riverfront property in one of Portland, Oregon’s most diverse neighborhoods. Verizon and their Portland-based subsidiary Skyward had sought to lease this area to test drones on Verizon’s 5G network along the Willamette river. “We appreciate the Port responding in support of community members and organizations who organized quickly to oppose this facility,” said Cassie Cohen (she/her), Executive Director of the Portland Harbor Community Coalition.

Racism, Repression, And Fightback In The USA

November 7, 2020 the Alliance for Global Justice. Resist! Militarization, Police violence, Rebellion2020, US military

A re-surged movement against police brutality, white supremacy, and state violence — come to be known as the largest sustained mobilization in modern history in the United States — continues to reignite public discourse around issues of systemic racism and the need to organize collectively across race lines for transformative change. It follows that this new wave of resistance has been met with violent and ruthless political repression: the militarization of police forces, a rise in mass arrests and indefinite detentions, hyper-criminalization of the right to protest...

The Contours Of Resistance Beyond The Election

November 4, 2020 the Black Alliance for Peace. Organize! 2020 Elections, Militarization, Police violence, Rebellion2020

From occupied Philadelphia to occupied Palestine, the people in the colonized spaces of empire will find it hard to discern a difference between how Democratic and Republican oppressors treat them. In Philadelphia, Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors borrowed a page from the Obama administration’s DOJ playbook. If folks recall, after the Baltimore uprisings in 2015, Obama’s DOJ slapped federal charges on the resisters Obama had referred to as “thugs and criminals.” Just last week, the Trump DOJ swept into Philly and nationalized a local law enforcement by...

As The Far-Right Escalates Calls For Violence, Police And National Guard Deploy

November 1, 2020 It's Going Down. Resist! 2020 Elections, Militarization, Right wing politics, State Violence

In the face of massive early voter turnout and a flood of mail-in ballots, Trump, in a last ditch effort, is continuing to signal that he will refuse to accept the outcome of the election; falling back on the combined power of the supreme court, the repressive power of the police and National Guard against protesters, and violent far-Right groups on the streets engaging in voter suppression and intimidation. Trump and his supporters have also once again started to float the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act; which would allow Trump to unleash the military on American civilians along with a flood of

Welcome To Sectarian America: A People, Divided And Armed

August 3, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Scheerpost.com. Educate! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Boogaloo, Militarization, Violence

Feeling more than a little exhausted from a late night spent tracking yet another polarizing fatal shooting at a protest, this time in Austin, I am reminded of what has become a tired — but no less accurate — cliché, to speak of “Two Americas.” I’d add that the citizens of each rump republic increasingly see two different scenes — and certainly draw divergent conclusions — from the same video footage. Details of thiss particular incident were initially sketchy and contested. However, most reports agree that libertarian activist Garrett Foster, who was himself armed with a rifle which he was in the habit of carrying when participating in Black Lives Matter protests, was shot and killed after he approached a car that drove into the crowd. The driver, who fled the scene, later called 911 and admitted he shot a protester who he said had pointed a rifle at him (which witnesses dispute); he was questioned but not arrested, as was a third man who allegedly fired at the car.

150 Federal Agents Set To Deploy In Chicago

July 22, 2020 Associated Press. Educate! Chicago, Donald Trump, federal law enforcement, Militarization, Police abuse

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is crafting plans to deploy about 150 federal agents to Chicago this week, the Chicago Tribune has learned, a move that would come amid growing controversy nationally about federal force being used in American cities. One Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Chicago, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak on the matter, confirmed the deployment was expected to take place. The official noted that the HSI agents, who are part of ICE, would not be involved in immigration or deportation matters. "We’re not going to leave New York and Chicago and Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore, and all of these — Oakland is a mess. We’re not going to let this happen in our country, all run by liberal Democrats,” Trump said. Atty. Gen. William Barr and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf would roll out a plan this week for tamping down crime in various U.S. cities.

Portland: A Harbinger Of Things To Come?

July 21, 2020 the Black Alliance for Peace. Educate! Militarization, Police abuse, Police violence, Racism

Militarized federal agents deployed by the president to Portland, fired tear gas against protesters again overnight as the city’s mayor demanded that the agents be removed and as the state’s attorney general vowed to seek a restraining order against them. (Dave Killen/The Oregonian via AP) Masked men in unrecognizable police uniforms jump out of unmarked vans and grab an activist who has been involved in demonstrations against a repressive state. That person is disappeared. Is this Pinochet’s Chile, apartheid South Africa or a scene from a John Clancy novel? No, this is happening in Portland, Oregon, a major U.S. city. The culprits apparently are agents of the federal government who have essentially invaded the streets of that city over the objections of the mayor and the governor.

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.

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