EDITOR’S NOTE: This article first appeared at The Roots of Liberty June 17, 2020, 23 days after George Floyd’s death under the knee of now-jailed police officer Derek Chauvin.
I am a proponent of de-militarizing the police as I find it undermines Posse Comitatus by subterfuge. And I mean ALL civil "policing" - not just community level, but eliminating the "military" forces (they're beyond SWAT teams) now enlodged within multiple civilian agencies throughout the executive branch. Following the Iraq and Afghan drawdowns, these agencies and local police forces "loaded up" on military hardware transferred for free through federal grants. And while this gear is generally never necessary for "policing" it WILL get used, eventually. For something. Find a reason - it's expensive to maintain and train these units. As a retired, 30-year career military man, I am deeply offended by this movement. Yes, there is a need for some kind of tactical response capability - somewhere, sometime and at some level of government. But this "Robocopping" of all American civilian police goes beyond rational. It's done "because we can".
Agree wholeheartedly. Radley Balko has been writing about militarization for years, and I've blogged about how it fosters a culture of "other" or "us vs them" rather than "we are the community" in the rank and file.
Big cities have good reason for such, and from what I hear from insiders, NYC's ESU is loaded with good cops (best of the best sort). But, small towns don't need tanks. As you note, if it's there, they'll find reason to use it.
I am a proponent of de-militarizing the police as I find it undermines Posse Comitatus by subterfuge. And I mean ALL civil "policing" - not just community level, but eliminating the "military" forces (they're beyond SWAT teams) now enlodged within multiple civilian agencies throughout the executive branch. Following the Iraq and Afghan drawdowns, these agencies and local police forces "loaded up" on military hardware transferred for free through federal grants. And while this gear is generally never necessary for "policing" it WILL get used, eventually. For something. Find a reason - it's expensive to maintain and train these units. As a retired, 30-year career military man, I am deeply offended by this movement. Yes, there is a need for some kind of tactical response capability - somewhere, sometime and at some level of government. But this "Robocopping" of all American civilian police goes beyond rational. It's done "because we can".
Agree wholeheartedly. Radley Balko has been writing about militarization for years, and I've blogged about how it fosters a culture of "other" or "us vs them" rather than "we are the community" in the rank and file.
Big cities have good reason for such, and from what I hear from insiders, NYC's ESU is loaded with good cops (best of the best sort). But, small towns don't need tanks. As you note, if it's there, they'll find reason to use it.