example of police militarization?

it's pretty obvious that leo's have become increasingly aggressive in their tactics in recent years. they've gone from just having patrol cars to having $500,000 armored transports with .60cal mounted machine guns, and a slew of other heavy weapons.

i'm curious about when it went from "to protect and serve" to "to punish and enslave"....even here where i live i've witnessed police militarization....



the patch on the left is the old sheriff's office patch, during that time the cars had "serving pasco" on the sides, the patch on the right is the new one, and the cars have that same slogan on them that the patch has...on top of that their uniforms have changed from the black slacks and brown shirt to an olive drab bdu...

what an unfortunate world that sees it's "law enforcement" turn into a paramilitary group

Unfortunately it's part of an escalating cycle. They become more militant to respond to increasingly militant threats. Criminals get big guns, cops get better armor and bigger guns, criminals then get better armor and even bigger guns, cops get...etc. As to who started it, it's kind of a chicken and egg thing. No one knows and the answer really doesn't matter at this point in the cycle.

It is still a terrible thing though.

Goken wrote: Unfortunately it's part of an escalating cycle. They become more militant to respond to increasingly militant threats. Criminals get big guns, cops get better armor and bigger guns, criminals then get better armor and even bigger guns, cops get...etc. As to who started it, it's kind of a chicken and egg thing. No one knows and the answer really doesn't matter at this point in the cycle.

It is still a terrible thing though.

Pretty much sums it up. I understand the need for tactical teams when it really hits the fan. I wouldn't really mind if the cops were militarized if I wasn't paranoid about them basically trashing our "rights" and taking advantage of their status with all the fancy gear and equipment. Cops already carry a shotgun and AR15 rifle in their cars, camouflage and military style looks are just for intimidation and I don't think that's cool. All the new vehicles they get is just so the military and DoD can get money for new stuff as those MRAPs have proven to be junk anyways. I really think they need to invest money into training them better, how to interact with the public, how to actually shoot and when it's okay to shoot.

So I'm in Russia right now and have been here a few months... the police here all have AKs on their backs even regular traffic cops. Then there are always many foot patrol police in groups of 3 dressed in black with AKs and vests. I am in the north caucasus where there's a history of insurgency and stuff so that's their response. Then outside the towns and going through different state borders there are checkpoints and the cops there are fully dressed in camouflage some with light machine guns. The police here in town will sit on the side of a random road and flag down who they please to check papers and trunks. At night going through different states you have to stop, let them search your car, and go through a metal detector into a building where they log your passport. Cops don't kill people here though, like in America.

Been seeing it alot around here as well. A month or so ago we were heading out to go shopping only to find our roads blocked off by tanks No one was at the tanks and no one was moving around patrolling or anything. Just this big freaking tank in the middle of the road.

In August we went down to Ohio's boarders to go to a Water Park. On our way home we were stopped at a light for a good 20 minuets watching huge military trucks file from a point A to a Point B base. It was crazy...

Get your own Rifles, Pistol and food supply ready. It's looking pretty ugly in the future.

i probably wouldn't have as much of an issue with police militarization if there wasn't so much corruption...i frequently see them abuse their authority, there are constant news reports of leo's getting into serious trouble, and of course the reports of racism etc...

there was a time when people could trust the people that enforced the laws and there was no need for them to be militarized...now it's often safer to avoid leo's...

http://www.activistpost.com/2015/11/american-cops-now-steal-more-property-than-all-us-burglars-combined.html
(this site presents information in a biased way, but its informations is factually accurate from what i have seen and is not being presented in the mainstream)

"According to the US Department of Justice, the value of asset forfeiture revoceries by US authorities from 1989-2010 was $12,667,612,066, increasing on average 19.5% per year."

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/03/civil-asset-forfeiture-7-things-you-should-know

3. But don’t police target only criminals?

Unfortunately, no. There are many stories of innocent people having their property seized. For example, between 2006 and 2008, law enforcement agents in Tenaha, Texas, engaged in a systematic practice of seizing cash and property from innocent drivers with absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing. In Philadelphia, police seized the home of two sisters whose brother, who did not live there, showed up while trying to evade the cops. In Detroit, cops seized over a hundred cars owned by patrons of an art institute event—because the institute had failed to get a liquor license. You can be totally innocent and still be unable to stop the government from seizing your property.

i've been saying for years, that laws and law enforcement is no longer about "right and wrong" but about making money for the state....

why else do they feel the need to hide when monitoring traffic?....if they were in plain site most drivers would drive safer, to me that is a better method of "protect and serve" than hiding behind signs and trees with radar guns etc...i've even heard it from several officers mouths that they do in fact have ticket quotas...and if they don't meet their quotas they get counselled....

about quotas
they are not even legal in many (not all - maybe not even MOST) districts but the reality is that they exist as unwritten (but NOT UNSPOKEN) expectations

theres a lot of examples of cops coming out and exposing this happening and even suing their departments for being punished for defying them or not meeting them

im not going to post a bunch of links to back that up unless someone asks but here is an example of a story thats easy to find

http://www.npr.org/2015/04/04/395061810/despite-laws-and-lawsuits-quota-based-policing-lingers

New York City Officer Adhyl Polanco

"The culture is, you're not working unless you are writing summonses or arresting people,"

Back in 2008, Officer Polanco was determined to expose the NYPD's alleged quota system. So he secretly recorded conversations inside his precinct house in the Bronx.

"Next week, it could be 25 and one. (this means 25 tickets and one arrest) It could be 35 and one," says a man Polanco identifies as a sergeant. The man heard in the recording is pushing his officers to get their numbers up. If they don't, he threatens, it could get even worse: The quota could be 25 tickets a month, or 35.

"Until you decide you're going to quit this job and become a Pizza Hut delivery man, this is what you're going to be doing until then," the man says.

---

a little more sinister

"The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.

http://www.publiceye.org/defendingjustice/overview/herzing_pic.html

companies we all recognize that benefit from PIC

https://www.popularresistance.org/12-mainstream-corps-benefiting-from-the-prison-industrial-complex/

mcdonalds

wendys

starbucks

sprint

verizon

victorias secret

american airlines

fidelity investments

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289

"At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum.

And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call “highly skilled positions.” At those rates, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. There, they can earn $1.25 an hour and work eight hours a day, and sometimes overtime. They can send home $200-$300 per month.

Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq.

[Former] Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that “there won’t be any transportation costs; we’re offering you competitive prison labor (here).”

some names we dont recognize

http://www.vice.com/read/whos-getting-rich-off-the-prison-industrial-complex

hey heres one for ya

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/26/first-state-legalizes-armed-drones-for-cops-thanks-to-a-lobbyist.html

The Daily Beast has reported that North Dakota has enacted a drone bill that permits law enforcement drones to be equipped with weapons such as Tasers, rubber bullets, tear gas, and sound cannons.

ever see the southpark episode with drones....yeah...