Showing posts with label paramilitary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paramilitary. Show all posts

Heather Digby Parton: Militarized Cops’ Scary New Toys

The ugly next frontier in “crowd control.   Now that the sight of American police decked out as if they are replaying the events of Blackhawk Down has alerted the American public to the militarization of our police agencies, perhaps they will finally be receptive to the warnings that some of us have been making for years about the next     ... MORE

John Stossel: Policing A Riot

Previews of coming attractions.       Libertarians warned for years that government is force, that government always grows and that America's police have become too much like an occupying army. We get accused of being paranoid, but we look less paranoid after heavily armed police in Ferguson, Missouri, tear gassed peaceful protesters,   ... MORE

Have We Reached a Tipping Point in the Police State?

by John W. Whitehead.       From Boston to Ferguson.  The difference between what happened in Boston in the wake of the Boston Marathon explosion and what is happening now in Ferguson, Missouri, is not in the government’s response but in the community’s response. This is what happens when you ignore the warning signs. This is what       ... MORE

VIDEO: Nick Gillespie: A Lot Of Conservatives Are Moving Towards Rand Paul On The Police Militarization Issue

Meet A Town That's Had Enough Of Militarized Policing

by J.D. Tuccille.       Barry Township, Michigan, with a population of about 4,000, has four full-time police officers, four part-time officers, two Humvees, two armored personnel carriers (free, courtesy of the Defense Department's 1033 program)—and, until recently, about three dozen unpaid but armed and empowered reserve police officers    ... MORE

John Stossel: Policing America

Today there are more than 50,000 "no-knock raids" a year. I want the police to be better armed than the bad guys, but what exactly does that mean today Apparently it means the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security equip even the tiniest rural police departments with massive military vehicles, body armor and grenade     ... MORE

Miltary Weapons For Cops Creating US Police State

by Gary Meyer.       Just who are they gearing up for? "Police stockpile military equipment" is yet another story about the militarization of local police, acquiring surplus military vehicles and other war-intended equipment, apparently to be used by SWAT teams, now deployed 50,000 times per year in too-frequent dubious or or outright       ... MORE

Chris Stobing: The Militarization Of America's Police State

Surveillance at the local level.     “We believe in transparency here, you have a right to know what the police are up to in your country.” – Camden Police Chief Scott Tomson. On VICE News, Vikram Gandhi went to Camden, New Jersey to preview the latest technologies and strategies that are being employed to help local law enforcement in the   ... MORE

Our Police Departments Are Quietly Preparing For War

by Tyler Durdan.     What if the government is not us? At first blush, the title of this post could be perceived as somewhat hyperbolic by those who still have an impression of America’s police departments as bastions of safety, designed “to protect and to serve” the population of the “land of the free.” However, said impression would be promptly    ... MORE

Cops To Perform Warrantless Searches On Beachgoers

Florida police troll for illegal drinks.        With the help of new technology and federal grant money, police are preparing to warrantlessly search people’s refreshments as they visit the beaches of Florida. New passive alcohol detectors can simply be hovered above a person’s beverage to detect whether it contains alcohol. Similar      ... MORE

A Mindset That Turns Search Warrants into Death Warrants

by John W. Whitehead.       How many children, old people, and law-abiding citizens have to be injured, terrorized or killed before we call a halt to the growing rash of police violence that is wracking the country? How many family pets have to be gunned down in cold blood by marauding SWAT teams before we declare such tactics off      ... MORE

Matthew Harwood: How The Castle Crumbled

“A man’s home is his castle,” the old English saying goes. Since the American Revolution, Americans’ homes have been considered sanctified space. Under the Castle Doctrine, first expressed in English common law, a person’s home — whether it’s a shack or a McMansion — is a protected space that no one can breach without the consent ... MORE

Joachim Hagopian: The Militarization Of Police State USA

You are sleeping in the middle of the night.   The next thing you know you are suddenly jarred awake with the loud thud of your front door crashing down from a battering ram. What seems about a dozen or more armed men in full armor suits looking just like soldiers in an Afghanistan raid, all carrying assault weapons are invading your home.     ...  MORE

John W Whitehead: A Military Plot To Take Over America

Fifty Years Later, Was the Mission Accomplished?       Director John Frankenheimer’s 1964 political thriller Seven Days in May is a clear warning to beware of martial law packaged as a well meaning and overriding concern for the nation’s security. Yet 50 years later, we find ourselves hostages to a government run more by military     ... MORE

Katie Kieffer: BEWARE Of No-Knock SWAT Attacks

Gun owners beware.        Squirt gun owners, that includes you. If a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team SUSPECTS you of crime, you may receive a late-night visit from an armed SWAT team. That’s right, an armed and militant SWAT team could trot right through your front door as you slumber this summer. No-knock warrants are increasingly     ...  MORE