My man Eugene O’Donnell wrote this in the Daily News. It’s worth reading, given general opposition (including some from me) to the militarization of police: At present only a handful of police departments have the capacity to intimidate would-be terrorists and, if need be, wage sustained combat against them in the streets of America. This…
Read more
Things went well in Baltimore last night. So far, knock on wood, nobody else has gotten seriously hurt. Compare this with police tactics in Ferguson. But Baltimore is better than Ferguson. And the BPD is better than the FPD. What we have not seen are flash-bang grenades. No tear gas. No gun shots (except for…
Read more
Courtesy of Pearls Before Swine:
A stun grenade exploded in a baby’s face. According to the BBC: The Swat officers had used a stun grenade, called a flash bang, as they entered the residence. The device, which creates bright bursts of light and noise to temporarily disorient its targets, landed in 19-month-old Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh’s playpen, where it burned…
Read more
The Economist’s takeon the militarization of police. Or, why does Keene, New Hampshire, need a $286,000 armored personnel-carrier?
If you care about the militarization of police, and Radley Balko makes a strong case you should, read his “fascinating and sometimes terrifying” Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces. That quote is mine. And you can find them in the July/August issue of Pacific Standard, a great new (to me)…
Read more
I’ll be gracing the ever-mysterious world of Second Life again tonight. It’s a nice long-form discussion. And you can listen in in your first life as well. Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd. Tonight at 9pm, New York time. It’s about the militarization of police.
From Jack Stripling in The Chronicle of Higher Education: The pepper spraying of student protesters at the University of California at Davis in November, an incident that provoked international outrage, constituted an unjustifiable use of force in an operation that was bungled by failures of leadership and communication at nearly every level, an investigative report…
Read more
In Indiana, you can now “stand your ground” against police. It would be ironic if this marked the end of police busting down people’s doors to find some drugs. Then the NRA might actually be defending liberty. But I suspect it’s just going to escalate matters. Yes, at least in Indiana, you can kill a…
Read more
You can watch the 45 minute version here. This may not be thedefinitive version, but if you care about this issue, you owe it to yourself to at least take 45 minutes from your busy life and watch a version of the whole thing. Some have said the cops are surrounded. That is after-the-fact rationalization…
Read more