Rise of the Warrior Cop

[poncho]

Is it time to reconsider the militarization of American policing?

On Jan. 4 of last year, a local narcotics strike force conducted a raid on the Ogden, Utah, home of Matthew David Stewart at 8:40 p.m. The 12 officers were acting on a tip from Mr. Stewart's former girlfriend, who said that he was growing marijuana in his basement. Mr. Stewart awoke, naked, to the sound of a battering ram taking down his door. Thinking that he was being invaded by criminals, as he later claimed, he grabbed his 9-millimeter Beretta pistol.

The police say that they knocked and identified themselves, though Mr. Stewart and his neighbors said they heard no such announcement. Mr. Stewart fired 31 rounds, the police more than 250. Six of the officers were wounded, and Officer Jared Francom was killed. Mr. Stewart himself was shot twice before he was arrested. He was charged with several crimes, including the murder of Officer Francom.

The police found 16 small marijuana plants in Mr. Stewart's basement. There was no evidence that Mr. Stewart, a U.S. military veteran with no prior criminal record, was selling marijuana. Mr. Stewart's father said that his son suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and may have smoked the marijuana to self-medicate.

Early this year, the Ogden city council heard complaints from dozens of citizens about the way drug warrants are served in the city. As for Mr. Stewart, his trial was scheduled for next April, and prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. But after losing a hearing last May on the legality of the search warrant, Mr. Stewart hanged himself in his jail cell.

The police tactics at issue in the Stewart case are no anomaly. Since the 1960s, in response to a range of perceived threats, law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment—from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers—American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop—armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323848804578608040780519904

 

[JohnDeereFan]

I believe they're gearing up (no pun intended) for the nationalization of local and state police forces.

 

[poncho]

Of course they are. That's what the DHS and it's "fusion centers" are all about.

Federalizing local and state police agencies.

This used to be called the consolidation of power and was viewed as a dangerous thing.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

So your suggesting Fascist tactics like police cruising neighborhoods in trucks, getting out & beating up anyone in sight, breaking windows & causing havoc where ever they are targeted to go......Ala, Nazi Brown Shirts?!?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung

 

[poncho]

I'm just saying that the consolidation of power of the type we see being carried out by the DHS used to be viewed as dangerous.

 

[Roy]

My son and daughter-in-law were taking an afternoon nap when they heard "Come out with your hands on top of your head." The city cops were in the living room with guns drawn and pointing down the hall. My 4-year old grand daughter was asleep in her room. My son, at first, thought about grabbing his pistol, because he did not hear them identify themselves as cops, but he and his wife both did as they were told, and were forced to lie face-down on the floor while they were searched and cuffed.

After talking with the officers they were uncuffed and told that it was apparently a hoax that someone had called in. Someone had called and reported that my son was suicidal and was about to kill himself.

My daughter-in-law talked to the precinct chief to complain, but he told her that everything was done according to procedure. This all happenrd in the spring of last year.

 

[Gina B]

So your suggesting Fascist tactics like police cruising neighborhoods in trucks, getting out & beating up anyone in sight, breaking windows & causing havoc where ever they are targeted to go......Ala, Nazi Brown Shirts?!?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung

There's nothing going on that makes you scratch your head and wonder if the waters are being tested?

When I heard the stories coming from those in stop and frisk, then watched the video about those who were stopped and slammed around, when I hear the stories...the deaf man beaten, the many in his 80's beaten when stopped for jaywalking, the thousands of parents crying out because the government has taken their children into custody and they don't have a voice in family court, the armored "SWAT" vehicles pointing weapons in the faces of the wrong home HOW many times?

Just because something is a law doesn't mean it's okay, and we have a lot of laws, so many that most everyone in this country has broken the law, and many more laws keep being put into place while those in power become better equipped, better armed, gain better surveillance, while it becomes less and less legal for citizens to carry anything that is remotely capable of helping a citizen defend him/herself.

It sounds like lines are being drawn between "them" and "us," and you never want to have "them" and "us" when it comes to this stuff. It should just be us. The only "them" should be the bad guys.

 

[prophet]

They are never going to line up against us, in a war. They will S.W.A.T. us, individually, one at a time. So much for an uprising.
Go back to sleep, American Man.

 

[Gina B]

My son and daughter-in-law were taking an afternoon nap when they heard "Come out with your hands on top of your head." The city cops were in the living room with guns drawn and pointing down the hall. My 4-year old grand daughter was asleep in her room. My son, at first, thought about grabbing his pistol, because he did not hear them identify themselves as cops, but he and his wife both did as they were told, and were forced to lie face-down on the floor while they were searched and cuffed.

After talking with the officers they were uncuffed and told that it was apparently a hoax that someone had called in. Someone had called and reported that my son was suicidal and was about to kill himself.

My daughter-in-law talked to the precinct chief to complain, but he told her that everything was done according to procedure. This all happenrd in the spring of last year.

That's horrible! So the magic word that let's them enter someone's home without a search warrant and weapons drawn is "we received a report someone was suicidal." Interesting.
Were they able to show specific laws or policies that show that to be true?

 

[poncho]

The Global Plutocracy

Maybe the article below will make it a bit easier to understand why the police powers are being centralized and militarized.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-global-plutocracy/5365647

 

[Sapper Woody]

The problem IMO, is not with the arming of the police force. The criminals are better armed, so the police force needs to be. Do you really want a group of officers carrying handguns when going after a gang armed with automatic rifles? Or would you rather the military step in and enact martial law?

To be clear, I am not condoning all police actions, only the training and arming.

 

[Roy]

That's horrible! So the magic word that let's them enter someone's home without a search warrant and weapons drawn is "we received a report someone was suicidal." Interesting.
Were they able to show specific laws or policies that show that to be true?

My daughter-in-law and son didn't want to pursue things any further. I thought that they should have, but it was their business.

 

[poncho]

The problem IMO, is not with the arming of the police force. The criminals are better armed, so the police force needs to be. Do you really want a group of officers carrying handguns when going after a gang armed with automatic rifles? Or would you rather the military step in and enact martial law?

To be clear, I am not condoning all police actions, only the training and arming.

Red Herring

 

[blackbird]

Is it time to reconsider the militarization of American policing?

On Jan. 4 of last year, a local narcotics strike force conducted a raid on the Ogden, Utah, home of Matthew David Stewart at 8:40 p.m. The 12 officers were acting on a tip from Mr. Stewart's former girlfriend, who said that he was growing marijuana in his basement. Mr. Stewart awoke, naked, to the sound of a battering ram taking down his door. Thinking that he was being invaded by criminals, as he later claimed, he grabbed his 9-millimeter Beretta pistol.

The police say that they knocked and identified themselves, though Mr. Stewart and his neighbors said they heard no such announcement. Mr. Stewart fired 31 rounds, the police more than 250. Six of the officers were wounded, and Officer Jared Francom was killed. Mr. Stewart himself was shot twice before he was arrested. He was charged with several crimes, including the murder of Officer Francom.

The police found 16 small marijuana plants in Mr. Stewart's basement. There was no evidence that Mr. Stewart, a U.S. military veteran with no prior criminal record, was selling marijuana. Mr. Stewart's father said that his son suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and may have smoked the marijuana to self-medicate.

Early this year, the Ogden city council heard complaints from dozens of citizens about the way drug warrants are served in the city. As for Mr. Stewart, his trial was scheduled for next April, and prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. But after losing a hearing last May on the legality of the search warrant, Mr. Stewart hanged himself in his jail cell.

The police tactics at issue in the Stewart case are no anomaly. Since the 1960s, in response to a range of perceived threats, law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment—from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers—American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop—armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323848804578608040780519904

So---the cops raid----acting on a SINGLE tip by the perpatrator's girlfriend??? No stakeout?? No survelence?? No undercover purchases?? ON THE SURFACE IT SOUNDS LIKE THE POLICE CAPTAIN HAS A ITCHY TRIGGER FINGER!!!

 

[JohnDeereFan]

The problem IMO, is not with the arming of the police force. The criminals are better armed, so the police force needs to be. Do you really want a group of officers carrying handguns when going after a gang armed with automatic rifles? Or would you rather the military step in and enact martial law?

To be clear, I am not condoning all police actions, only the training and arming.

Those are our only two choices? Since when do we trade liberty for security?

And what of posse comitatus?

Do you really want men in a militarized unit, who are no longer taught the Constitution in school, under the command of a president who doesn't believe the law applies to him?

 

[Sapper Woody]

Red Herring

I don't think so. The discussion is about the rise of militaristic police. And I gave a brief example of why I don't think it's the militaristic police that are the problem. It's all about accountability. I'll get more into it after this next quote.

Those are our only two choices? Since when do we trade liberty for security?

And what of posse comitatus?

Do you really want men in a militarized unit, who are no longer taught the Constitution in school, under the command of a president who doesn't believe the law applies to him?

Today's gangsters, drug dealers, etc, are more heavily armed than before. Sometimes, they are even better armed than the terrorists our military is fighting overseas. And that's not hyperbole. To combat this, our police force needs to be better equipped and trained in how to deal with a threat like that.

A well armed and trained police force is NOT the threat. The threat is allowing the police force to use its position of power unchecked. A good, well-meaning officer is no more of a threat with an M4 than he is a handgun. On the flip side, an evil, power-hungry officer is no less of a threat with a handgun than he is an M4.

Arming makes no difference at all. It's accountability.

 

[JohnDeereFan]

Today's gangsters, drug dealers, etc, are more heavily armed than before. Sometimes, they are even better armed than the terrorists our military is fighting overseas. And that's not hyperbole. To combat this, our police force needs to be better equipped and trained in how to deal with a threat like that.

A well armed and trained police force is NOT the threat. The threat is allowing the police force to use its position of power unchecked. A good, well-meaning officer is no more of a threat with an M4 than he is a handgun. On the flip side, an evil, power-hungry officer is no less of a threat with a handgun than he is an M4.

Arming makes no difference at all. It's accountability.

What tyranny did not begin with "No, no, you don't understand! We're your friends! We just want to help you!"

Why do you believe the government wouldn't put the pieces in place before they nationalized state and local police?

 

[Squire Robertsson]

Actually, the warrior mentality of US police goes back a lot futher than most here think. IMHO, it goes back

• to the post WW2 influx of vetrans into the ranks of the various police departments.
• to the rise of motorized car patrols vis. cops walking a beat.
• to the availability of military grade (full auto vis. semi auto) weapons on the street (criminals don't care about gun laws). Which leads to paranoia on the part of the police who all ready faced life and death situations.

Talking about posse comitatus is all well and good, but it takes time training together to make a usable fire team.

 

[poncho]

I don't think so. The discussion is about the rise of militaristic police. And I gave a brief example of why I don't think it's the militaristic police that are the problem. It's all about accountability. I'll get more into it after this next quote.

This tells me you haven't read the reports coming out of government on "domestic extremism" and the manuals being used to "train" the police.

If you read them you'll get the jist of it. And the jist is . . . we're the real enemy the govt fears not "the terrorists". Here's but one of many examples . . .

The following presentations are used in the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) program for law enforcement, which is supported by grants from the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. The presentations can be downloaded individually or in an archive containing all eight presentations.

http://publicintelligence.net/slatt-terrorism-training/

Terrorism is just the pretext being used to set up the global police state to protect a small group of global elites from the masses they are fleecing.

Like I said, your argument is a Red Herring

 

[Don]

This tells me you haven't read the reports coming out of government on "domestic extremism" and the manuals being used to "train" the police.

We're the real enemy the govt fears not "the terrorists".

Terrorism is just the pretext being used to set up the global police state to protect a small group of global elites from the masses they are fleecing. No it's not just in America this "warrior cop" thing is happening.

Ponch -- that's what Woody said. That's why he said it was about accountability. Accountability comes from the people who elected the officials, and hired the law enforcers.