Militarization of our Police

BlastTyrant

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Militarization of our police - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

Militarization of Our Police
Posted: Oct 30, 2013 1:01 PM CDTUpdated: Oct 31, 2013 7:27 PM CDT

"What's happening here is we're building a domestic military. It's unlawful and unconstitutional to use American troops on American soil. So what we're doing is building a military," says Col. Martino of New Hampshire.

You just heard from a retired Marine Colonel from Concord, New Hampshire. He didn't want to see his local police department take 250 thousand dollars in grants from the Federal Government to buy a new military grade vehicle that we have four of here in North Dakota.

Since September 11th 34 billion dollars have been spent with the Department of Homeland Security funds. But right now the US government is almost 17 trillion dollars in debt and heading further in that direction. For the past two months Valley News Live has been looking into the spending of some of those funds at the local level, all in the name of defense. What we found is a police force that has evolved drastically in just ten plus years. Valley News teams Eric Crest scratches the surface tonight in part one of the so called militarization of the police force right here in the F-M.

There was a time in police departments locally and nationally, not so long ago, that the policeman was someone who carried a badge and gun and patrolled the community on foot. Someone you got to know, someone kids looked up too.

Today, the image is quite different and becoming more and more common. Police forces are adopting more of a paramilitary look in some departments. To some, the look is concerning in their appearance. Especially considering the outfits for some squads are now more commonly outfitted for war than patrolling the streets of Fargo. In some cases the standard police car has been replaced with mraps first used in Afghanistan.

So how did we get here? Has crime in the valley gotten so bad that equipment battled tested in Iraq and Afghanistan has become the defacto uniform for our police forces? Or is it something else?

"Actually when I first started we didn't even have bullet proof vests," says retired Moorhead Police Deputy Chief Dave Andersen.

Andersen served the Moorhead Police Department for 27 years starting in the early 70's.

"I was promoted to Lt. and the last four years I was Deputy Chief," Andersen tells Valley News Live.

But Andersen hung up his patrol belt. He now teaches the future law enforcement agents of tomorrow at Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Moorhead. Teaching young men and women who he says will be more equipped with advanced weaponry and defense than his department ever was.

"We weren't even issued... when I started we had to buy our own weapons," explains Andersen of how he acquired his gun for the department.

When Andersen started his weapon was a 6 round revolver that he bought. A far cry from the standard issue weapon of today, a 40 caliber semi-automatic glock. This is just one example of the advancements in technology that has changed the face of police departments across the country.

Over at NDSU in Fargo, Carol Archbold, an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice says the Fargo Police department is far from a militarized force, "a lot of what they use today, we've always had. It just looks different and I can tell you it's a lot more expensive."

Advancements in crime fighting technology come in many different shapes and sizes. Outfitting bomb squads and swat teams in North Dakota with the newest tricks of the trade comes with a hefty price tag. Much of it footed by the Department of Homeland Security.

Greg Wilz the Director of Homeland Security in North Dakota says, "we have gone from like an all time high of 17 million back in 2003 down to what we're receiving now which is about 3.4 million a year in Homeland Security grant funding."

Since 2001 the Federal government has written about 34 billion dollars in grants to police departments across the country. All in the name of securing the homeland and fighting terrorism. Police departments we spoke to said they are happy to take the funds if they believe they can actually utilize the grants.

"You can't really fault the police department for applying for the grants. It's a smart thing to do if they want that technology. But I think the idea here is the grants are specifically outlining what the technology is used for and that's something the government would dictate," says Prof. Archbold.

Locally the Fargo Police department has created a swat team, bomb squad, and purchased a tank that's only been used a dozen times in nearly four years. All of these purchases and training was heavily funded with Department of Homeland Security dollars.

We wanted to know what else your tax dollars have purchased and whether or not if it's in response to an increase in crime. Through a freedom of information request we pulled the spending records of the Fargo Police department since 2003 and records for the Moorhead Police since 2006.

Over the past 10 years Fargo's department has spent just about 900 thousand dollars on what many would deem high tech tactical weaponry and gear. Each year more money has been spent while the crime rate has more or less stayed the same.

"It's multi-purposed. They can use it for many things but the intention the grant says that's it's for is anti-terrorism efforts. So if that's the intention I don't believe there is any terrorism here," says Prof. Archbold. Though she and Prof. Andersen both agree that the police departments in the F-M are far from militarized forces.

We took the question of spending directly to the office of Homeland Security and asked them if the expenditures were really meant to fight terrorism in the wake of September 11th.

Valley News Live Reporter Eric Crest questioned whether that's what the dollars were intended for specifically, "I don't know if initially the dollars were meant to be spent in that respect?"

"And I would agree with you. I think years ago these dollars were spent for terrorism. But we get smarter over time. For example, If we're only building a terrorism capability and now we set it on the shelf and not use it till an incident occurs, how ready are we really going to be?" Says Dir. Greg Wilz explaining the reality of the spending.

Preparing a police force for the worst case scenario isn't taken lightly ever since 9-11 and the federal government is now willing to back that belief monetarily. Even if there aren't acts of terrorism in North Dakota.

"If we're better prepared on a daily basis does that not counter terrorism at some level? I think the answer is yes," says Dir. Wilz.

Thursday on Valley News Live 10 at 10 we sit down with the Fargo Police Chief Keith Ternes. Ternes agrees with us in some respects, the look of our local police department is changing.

"I think we have to acknowledge that the dynamics associated with policing and providing public safety services has changed drastically," says Chief Ternes.

We also will speak with some watchdogs who warn that as police departments make these military like upgrades in law enforcement we're inching closer and closer to what could become something of a police state. These watchdogs also claim that it's not a stretch to relate what is happening with federal dollars and military contractors to something our nation was warned about years ago by a prominent president known as the military industrial complex.

Tune into Valley News Live 10 at 10 on Thursday to watch part two of this exclusive story you'll only find on Valley News Live.

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There was a day when a police officer was someone who was just a cop on the beat. They simply wore a badge and a revolver and walked the streets in their communities where everyone knew their name. But times have changed.

Police officers are now equipped with gear that some say is better suited to the theater of war than the streets of Fargo/Moorhead. Some watchdogs warn the United States is building a private, domestic army. Others say local police departments are just taking advantage of blank checks being written by the Department of Homeland Security and funded by taxpayer dollars. So what's really going on?

Valley News Live spent two months investigating the militarization of our police. See what we found in part one tonight on Valley News Live at 10pm.
 

BlastTyrant

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I bring this one up for the fact i have family in ND and their local Police Station just acquired on of this bearcat vehicles and is in talks of a actual Tank.

Police 'Tank' Purchase Riles New Hampshire Town

Police 'Tank' Purchase Riles New Hampshire Town

First Posted: 02/16/2012 8:41 amUpdated: 02/17/2012 10:49 am



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Drug War , Crime , Terrorism , Video , New Hampshire , Cops , Free Keene , Free State ,Keene , Keene New Hampshire , Police , Police Militarization , Police Tank , Police Tank New Hampshire , Politics News


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"We're going to have our own tank."

That's what Keene, N.H., Mayor Kendall Lane whispered to Councilman Mitch Greenwald during a December city council meeting.

It's not quite a tank. But the quaint town of 23,000 -- scene of just two murders since 1999 -- had just accepted a $285,933 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to purchase a Bearcat, an eight-ton armored personnel vehicle made by Lenco Industries Inc.

But those plans are on hold for now, thanks to a backlash from feisty residents. Resistance began with Mike Clark, a 27-year-old handyman. Clark, who said he's had a couple encounters with Keene police and currently faces a charge of criminal mischief, read about the Homeland Security grant in the newspaper. "The police are already pretty brutal," Clark said, claiming he was roughed up in both his encounters with local police. "The last thing they need is this big piece of military equipment to make them think they're soldiers."

Clark's father, Terry Clark, is on the Keene City Council, and so far the only council member to publicly oppose the Bearcat. But Mike Clark said he knows how the council works. "They can pass these things without any public discussion," Clark said. "And you don't hear about them until they've already passed. But if you collect enough signatures, you can force them to reconsider the motion." Clark did just that, collecting more than 500 signatures opposing the Bearcat.

More than 100 people packed a Feb. 9 meeting of a city council committee, nearly all to oppose equipping the police deaprtment, with about 45 sworn officers, with a Bearcat. One speaker quoted in the Keene Sentinel was Roberta Mastrogiovanni, owner of a newsstand downtown. “It promotes violence,” Mastrogiovanni said. “We should promote more human interaction rather than militarize. I refuse to use money for something this unnecessary when so many people in our community are in need.”

Since the 1990s, the Pentagon has made military equipment available to local police departments for free or at steep discounts. This, along with drug war-related policies, has spurred a trend toward a more militarized domestic police force in America. Law enforcement and elected officials have argued for years that better-armed, high-powered police departments are needed to fight the war on drugs.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the war on terror has accelerated the trend toward militarization. Homeland Security hands out anti-terrorism grants to cities and towns, many specifically to buy military-grade equipment from companies like Lenco. In December, the Center for Investigative Reporting reported that Homeland Security grants totalled $34 billion, and went to such unlikely terrorism targets as Fargo, N.D.; Fon du Lac, Wisc.; and Canyon County, Idaho. The report noted that because of the grants, defense contractors that long served the Pentagon exclusively have increasingly turned looked to police departments, hoping to tap a "homeland security market" expected to reach $19 billion by 2014.

Until only recently, public and press reaction to these grants and the gear purchased with them has been positive or non-existent. Most towns obtain and use the grants without much discussion or news coverage. At most, the local paper might run a supportive story touting the police department's new acquisition, usually without controversy. But it has been different in Keene, in part because Clark and a group of libertarian activists have made the Bearcat an issue.

Jim Massery, the government sales manager for Pittsfield, Mass.-based Lenco, dismissed critics who wonder why a town with almost no crime would need a $300,000 armored truck. "I don't think there's any place in the country where you can say, 'That isn't a likely terrorist target,'" Massery said. "How would you know? We don' t know what the terrorists are thinking. No one predicted that terrorists would take over airplanes on Sept. 11. If a group of terrorists decide to shoot up a shopping mall in a town like Keene, wouldn't you rather be prepared?"

Massery said Keene's anti-Bearcat citizens deliberately mischaracterize how the vehicle would be used, and pointed to incidents he said have saved police officers' lives. "When you see some Palestinian terrorist causing problems in Jerusalem, what do you usually see next? You see a tank with a cannon show up outside the guy's house, and the tank blows the house to smithereens. When a Lenco Bearcat shows up at a crime scene where a suicidal killer is holding hostages, it doesn't show up with a cannon. It shows up with a negotiator. Our trucks save lives. They save police lives. And I can't help but think that the people who are trying to stop this just don't think police officers' lives are worth saving."

Keene residents opposed to the Bearcat point to a video Lenco uses to market the vehicle to police departments. (See below.) The video doesn't stress negotiation, but shows the vehicle being used aggressively. The video viewpoint is similar to that of a shooter role-playing game, set to the AC/DC song "Thunderstruck." Cops dressed in camouflage tote assault weapons, pile in and out of the vehicle, and take aim at targets from around and behind the vehicle. They attach a battering ram to the front of the vehicle, break through the front door of a house, then inject tear gas. The Keene city council barred Clark from showing the video at the February committee meeting, and LENCO has since removed the video from publicly-accessible pages of its website.

"That video is totally irrelevant," Massery said. "We used some Hollywood effects and slick marketing to promote our product. So what?"

Neither Keene Mayor Kendall Lane nor police Chief Kenneth Meola returned HuffPost's requests for comment.

Many towns have purchased vehicles like the Bearcat, or obtained tanks or armored vehicles from the Pentagon, saying they need to be prepared for terror attacks or school shootings. When the University of North Carolina-Charlotte recently formed a SWAT team, for example, a police spokesman told the campus newspaper that the paramilitary gear and tactics were necessary to prevent another Columbine or Virginia Tech. Despite the heavy media coverage of campus shootings, they're extremely rare. University of Virginia Professor Dewey Cornell, who studies violence prevention and school safety, has estimated that a typical school campus can expect to see a homicide about once every 12,000 years. So, since terror attacks and school shootings are rare, police agencies tend to use their armored vehicles for more mundane police work, like serving drug warrants.

"All we do is make trucks," Massery said. "How the trucks are used after the police department gets them isn't something we can control. You'll have to ask the police department or city council and Keene about that."

Much of the opposition to the Bearcat in Keene has come from Free Keene, media-savvy libertarians who moved to the town in recent years as part of the Free State Project, a coordinated campaign in which enough like-minded people move to a small state like New Hampshire to change policy and create a libertarian government. Free Staters have clashed with Keene police on several occasions since their arrival, including incidents in which activists were arrested or threatened for recording on-duty cops with cell phones and video cameras. (It is legal to record on-duty cops in New Hampshire).

Free Keene is a particularly active branch of the Free State movement. The group has staged acts of civil disobedience, ranging from the generally sympathetic (recording on-duty cops) to antics more likely to inspire eye-rolls and criticism from the town's longtime residents, including "Topless Tuesdays" and smoke-in sessions in the town square, just across from City Hall and a local middle school.

"These people are crazy," Massery said. "They hate cops. They hate the government. They remind me of the Jehovah's Witnesses who take on the Red Cross. Why is anyone listening to them?"

But Clark, the Keene resident who started the petitions, isn't a Free Stater. And while some of Free Keene's antics have rubbed longtime Keenians the wrong way, the Bearcat seems to have united many old-timers and their newer neighbors. "This is a big topic in this small town, and I haven't met a single person who in favor" of the Bearcat, said Dorrie O'Meara, who moved to Keene 13 years ago. O'Meara owns real estate and several businesses around Keene, including a laundromat, an apartment complex, and Pedraza's Mexican restaurant. "Keene is a beautiful place. It's gorgeous, and it's safe, and we love it here. We just don't want to live in the kind of place where there's an armored personnel carrier parked outside of City Hall. I mean, it's completely unnecessary. But it's more than that. It's just not who we are."

Some city council members have said that because the vehicle will be paid for by a federal grant, the town would be foolish not to take it. O'Meara doesn't buy it. "They try to say it's 'free.' Well it isn'tfree. Taxpayers are still paying to put this militaristic thing in our town. And it isn't about the money, anyway. It's about what kind of town we want to be."

The Keene city council will take up the issue again next month. Massery predicted opposition from Keene residents will ultimately be in vain. "We have Bearcats in 90 percent of the 100 or so largest cities in America," Massery said. "This is going to happen. It has already happened. To resist now would be like saying police officers should scrap the Glock and go back to the revolver. It's a fantasy."
 

HDRKID

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This process is on going. Frankly, they know something and are not telling us. Delays could be put in. However, the whole system will collapse eventually, and it will take down many empires. Best strategy is to prepare. Get ready for what is coming.

moon_man_yes.jpg
 

wyldberi

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The OP included a comment that said police were once viewed as being benign community helpers who patrolled our streets on foot with just a revolver. Yes, that was one face the police portrayed. But if you happened to live in a community of color, the police have always displayed a different face. They have always possessed the potential for becoming a force of brutal, repressive violence to control and punish those who threaten the existing power structure. That's the nature of the institution; the role it plays in our society.

What's different today, is that the lower end of the socioeconomic scale isn't the only group that threatens the existing power structure. In part, the nature of the power structure has changed somewhat. It's more radicalized and more controlled by the monied interests in this country.

The OP is completely correct in noting the ever-increasing militarization of our police forces. This isn't something new; it stretches back to the Regan era. It's been on-going, and with the passing of time, more and more extreme. As the presence of this entity continues, the Public grows accustomed to that presence, and this makes way for another round of escalation.

IMO, it's not just the creation of a domestic military we're witnessing; we're watching the co-opting of the entire legal justice system by the wealthy and the powerful. This same class has always been in control; now, they're simply tightening the nose.
 

BlastTyrant

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2,585
I have kind of been putting things together lately with all the Race baiting going on in the media, could this potentially be a excuse for the Police to get militarized?

I know there was a drive by shooting of a few Firemen a couple days ago, and people are literally waging war vs the police, perhaps this is where the militarization comes in.......we are about to see it.
 

wyldberi

Junior Member
Messages
76
I have kind of been putting things together lately with all the Race baiting going on in the media, could this potentially be a excuse for the Police to get militarized?

I know there was a drive by shooting of a few Firemen a couple days ago, and people are literally waging war vs the police, perhaps this is where the militarization comes in.......we are about to see it.

The militarization is already there. As mentioned earlier, it's been a festering wound in the fabric of society for decades. You see it in the police helmets with plexiglass face shields; the solid black or dark, dark blue uniforms; the Velcro tabs that cover officer names & badge numbers; large shields shaped like those used by the Roman legions long ago that are now being used in phalanx formation to push crowds back and out of the way; rubber bullets and other forms of non-lethal weaponry. And how about the crowd control tanks and armored cars?

If you're talking about militarization in the sense of a mental attitude, then yes, this is an excuse for those behind the move to militarize the police to reinforce the "we v. them" mentality that causes police to gather the wagons around their own interests and view "them" as being anyone else who does not fit the profile of our wealthy: executive / politician / investor class.

When the real trouble starts, I'm betting the police will be serving as a reserve force, with military contractors being the heavy hitting shock troops that lead the way. I see this happening when economic turmoil erupts. This might occur as part of a global economic melt down. Financial institutions closed; massive unemployment; there may be virulent diseases involved. When this is followed by the loss of infrastructure, including gas and oil pipelines, the transportation network that brings food to our supermarkets, what will happen?

As for the Public, we, the average Citizens of our country, have you noticed the expansion of doomsday "entertainment" stories being released from Hollywood and by the television networks? Zombies everywhere you look. Communities cut off from the outside world. Roaming bands of brigands led by local warlords. I see this as being a form of mental conditioning intended to create a mindset in which resistance to an authoritarian power structure becomes virtually impossible to organize.

It's all headed somewhere. No one can say for sure where or how it will eventually look. But it's definitely headed in a direction in a unified direction and I don't like what I see.
 

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