Militarized police

Study: Police Often Provoke Protest Violence

August 24, 2014 Kurtis Alexander, www.sfgate.com Resist! Militarized police, Police abuse, Protests

The violence that turns a small-town protest into a fiery national spectacle like the one that has played out this month in Missouri is often unwittingly provoked by police, according to researchers at UC Berkeley. The research team, which studied clashes between police and activists during the Occupy movement three years ago, found that protests tend to turn violent when officers use aggressive tactics, such as approaching demonstrators in riot gear or lining up in military-like formations. Recent events in Ferguson, Mo., are a good example, the study's lead researcher said. For nearly two weeks, activists angered by a white police officer's fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager have ratcheted up their protests when confronted by heavily armed police forces. "Everything starts to turn bad when you see a police officer come out of an SUV and he's carrying an AR-15," said Nick Adams, a sociologist and fellow at UC Berkeley'sInstitute for Data Science who leads the Deciding Force Project. "It just upsets the crowd."

Ferguson Exposes the Reality Of Militarized, Racist Policing

August 17, 2014 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Militarized police, Police abuse, Racism

The public reaction to the killing of Michael Brown and its aftermath has been immense. On Thursday evening protests were held from coast-to-coast expressing solidarity with the people of Ferguson and grief for the death of Michael Brown and the deaths of others across the nation killed by police. There are now increasing calls for the demilitarization of the police by the Attorney General and elected officials. And, the DOJ has announced a broad review of police practices that lead to deadly force. People are taking action pressuring the DOJ to act, see: Tell The Department of Justice to end racist and militaristic policing. This is a teachable moment and an opportunity to advance the cause of transforming the police. Hundreds of thousands of Americans watched events unfold in Ferguson. They saw the police tear gassing a community in mourning, firing at them with rubber bullets and using sound canons to disperse them. They saw military-style police chase them into neighborhoods where they continued to fire tear gas and rubber bullets. They saw reporters abused and arrested as a SWAT team took over a McDonald’s where they were reporting from and other reporters attacked with tear gas and then the police dismantling the journalist’s equipment.

Stop ‘Urban Shield’ Conference: ‘No’ To Militarized Police

August 16, 2014 War Resisters League, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Militarized police, Police abuse

The militarized lockdown and brutal attack on Ferguson's Black community is not an anomaly. Police repression is growing across the US and globally through coordinated efforts to militarize policing tactics and weapons. Local police departments are now directly funded by the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. From September 4th-8th, one such DHS-backed program, Urban Shield, will be hosted by Oakland's Marriott Hotel. This weekend - including SWAT training, national and transnational police networking, and weaponry sales - is coordinated by the Urban Areas Security Intiative (UASI.) UASI is an initative in which the St. Louis area police actively participate. The military tanks, tear-gas, rubber bullets and SWAT armor attacking the people of Ferguson are there because of these programs: Resist the occupation of Ferguson by stopping Urban Shield.

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