The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[Darth Wagtaros]

Plus the expecation that you'll get killed if the cop freaks out and later says, "we didn't know that the 90 yr old man's cane WASN'T a pump action shot gun."

[derspiess]

I thought it was well known he had shoplifted it was the whole 'shot while unarmed thing' that was the problem.

I wasn't aware of that. All I knew was that Michael Brown was getting ready to go to college. Oh, and also that he was getting ready to go to college. And that he was executed in cold blood.

[CountDeMoney]

At least when garbon rolls his eyes, he uses the smiley.

[Neil]

Back then, only LAPD had that kind of militaristic, adversarial philosophy.  But post-9/11, with the Homeland Security grant bonanza combined with the massive influx of combat veteran soldiers into a profession whose only trait it has in common with soldiering is the concept of a rank structure, it has become the norm.

Yeah. It just seems so far from 'police by consent' that I have about as much understanding of American cops as of French gendarmes running through Gare du Nord with what looked to me, as a shit-scared fourteen year old, like machine guns.

Which is funny, since the first time I remember seeing police with machine guns was actually in London.

[Razgovory]

I thought it was well known he had shoplifted it was the whole 'shot while unarmed thing' that was the problem.

I wasn't aware of that. All I knew was that Michael Brown was getting ready to go to college. Oh, and also that he was getting ready to go to college. And that he was executed in cold blood.

Also he was black and probably "living the stereotype".

[Martinus]

Back then, only LAPD had that kind of militaristic, adversarial philosophy.  But post-9/11, with the Homeland Security grant bonanza combined with the massive influx of combat veteran soldiers into a profession whose only trait it has in common with soldiering is the concept of a rank structure, it has become the norm.

Yeah. It just seems so far from 'police by consent' that I have about as much understanding of American cops as of French gendarmes running through Gare du Nord with what looked to me, as a shit-scared fourteen year old, like machine guns.

Which is funny, since the first time I remember seeing police with machine guns was actually in London.

For me it was Paris. There were cops with machine guns at the entrance to the Louvre.

[Jaron]

I thought it was well known he had shoplifted it was the whole 'shot while unarmed thing' that was the problem.

I wasn't aware of that. All I knew was that Michael Brown was getting ready to go to college. Oh, and also that he was getting ready to go to college. And that he was executed in cold blood.

[Syt]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/08/turning-policemen-into-soldiers-the-culmination-of-a-long-trend/376052/

Turning Policemen Into Soldiers, the Culmination of a Long Trend

Another poisoned fruit of the post-9/11 sensibility

The images from Missouri of stormtrooper-looking police confronting their citizens naturally raises the question: how the hell did we get to this point? When did the normal cops become Navy SEALs? What country is this, anyway?

There will be more and more mainstream coverage of the modern militarization of the police, a phenomenon mainly of the post-9/11 years. For reference/aggregation purposes, here is a guide to further reading:

1) The Book on this topic: Rise of the Warrior Cop, by Radley Balko. It came out a year ago and is more timely now than ever.

2) "Lockdown Nation," a Peter Moskos review of Balko's book last year in PS magazine.

3) "How the War on Terror Has Militarized the Police," an Atlantic dispatch by Arthur Rizer and Joseph Hartman three years ago.

4) "Tanks in Small Towns," a web item I did in 2011 on signs of this trend, including this photo of a police force in South Carolina:



And this one from a small town in Virginia:



And this from Florida:



5) Some other Atlantic coverage here, here, here.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/turning-patrolmen-into-soldiers-how-did-we-let-this-happen/248828/
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/uc-davis-update-featuring-catopticon-and-tanks-in-small-towns/248793/
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/the-moral-power-of-an-image-uc-davis-reactions/248778/

6) Update: An important and well-illustrated report by Matt Apuzzo in the NYT two months ago, called "War Gear Flows to Police Departments."

7) Update^2: A new report from Alec MacGillis in TNR on how "anti-terrorist" funding from DHS has equipped police forces with this CENTCOM-style war gear.

This Ferguson, Missouri episode is obviously about race, and is (another) occasion for pointing readers to Ta-Nehisi Coates's powerful "Reparations" article. It is also about how we govern ourselves, and about how far the ramifying self-damage of the post-9/11 era has gone.

"Self-damage"? All the literature about terrorism emphasizes that the harm directly done in an attack is nothing compared with the self-destructive reactions it can induce. From Fallujah to Ferguson, that is part of what we're seeing now.

I won't belabor that theme for the moment but will say: Perhaps these incredible police-state-like images will have some attention-focusing or "enough!" effect, like their counterparts from another era (below). Meanwhile, check out Balko's book.

[Jaron]

I'm glad we stopped the militarization of the fire departments.

[Razgovory]

That seems to be a separate issue.  The kid wasn't shot with a tank, just a cop with a gun.

[celedhring]

Back then, only LAPD had that kind of militaristic, adversarial philosophy.  But post-9/11, with the Homeland Security grant bonanza combined with the massive influx of combat veteran soldiers into a profession whose only trait it has in common with soldiering is the concept of a rank structure, it has become the norm.

Yeah. It just seems so far from 'police by consent' that I have about as much understanding of American cops as of French gendarmes running through Gare du Nord with what looked to me, as a shit-scared fourteen year old, like machine guns.

Which is funny, since the first time I remember seeing police with machine guns was actually in London.

For me it was Paris. There were cops with machine guns at the entrance to the Louvre.

Spanish police uses them in roadblocks when they are looking for armed/dangerous subjects (like ETA terrorists). Been stopped by machine-gun wielding cops many a time in the 80s-90s.

[Razgovory]

Yeah, I noticed that in Europe.  Thought it strange that the police carry machine pistols.

[The Brain]

I don't think Swedish cops have machine guns.

[garbon]

Deputy Travis Junior: To me it doesn't make sense if you gotta pray facin' a certain way... if God's everywhere shouldn't you be able to face any which way when you pray? Like is his receiver somewhere in the Middle East and he's listening to the receiver or somethin'?

Deputy James Garcia: Yeah, it's like, I have a plan with God but it's like a bad cell plan, doesn't work in certain areas.

Deputy Travis Junior: Five calls a day.

Deputy James Garcia: See I got anytime minutes with my God.

That is my favorite episode, white devil.

[Sheilbh]

Which is funny, since the first time I remember seeing police with machine guns was actually in London.

When and where was that? Because I remember being really freaked out by that after the 7/7 bombings around many central London tube stops. It was weird.

Yeah, I noticed that in Europe.  Thought it strange that the police carry machine pistols.

In the UK they're generally a special armed response unit that are, from my understanding, pretty well trained. The only permanently armed force are the police for nuclear facilities.

Though my mum works in the nuclear industry and I went on a couple of site visits as a kid and I don't remember ever seeing them. So I don't know what they do or where they are