When a country wages military campaigns on a scale not fully disclosed to the public to feed the coffers of war profiteers, it cannot possibly be surprising when that militarism — so infused in the political propaganda masking it as national security — eventually comes home.
Thus in 2016 — as the rule of the longest wartime president in U.S. history, Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama — draws to a close, it must be equally unsurprising the brief and altogether impotent attempt to demilitarize America’s police forces might soon be repealed.
However, the State’s continued proselytizing on the need for domestic security and citizen safety proffered as the reason for remilitarization only beclouds what, in actuality, has been a steady downward trend in both violent crime and acts of terrorism. As with any governmental propaganda, it’s imperative to cut through fictitious, nebulous fearmongering so the public can protest further curtailment of basic rights from a reasoned platform of fact.
For decades, police officers had been tasked with protecting the public they served from violent crime and property thieves. And, to a large extent, the image of Officer Friendly remains so ingrained in the collective consciousness, large segments of the populace perform logical gymnastics in order to defend even the most egregious brutality by cops — instead of questioning the gradual apparent erasure of constitutional due process.
But as politicians and a growing number of prominent, if controversial, heads of law enforcement pontificate on the need for officer and civilian safety to fully reinstate the military’s handout of surplus equipment to departments nationwide, someone needs to slam on the brakes and ask:
Are we really in that much danger?
In short, the answer is a resounding No.
Indeed, the spike in the homicide rate in the early 1990s gave rise to the now-notorious Clinton crime bill of 1994 — a move that crammed both government and for-profit prisons with nonviolent criminals via mandatory minimums and other controversial provisions, it arguably birthed our modern police state.
Though many legislators and advocates now decry the bill as horribly flawed, it nevertheless facilitated the militarization of police following the attacks of September 11, 2001. And as any historian, academic, or watchdog organization will tell you, it’s exponentially more difficult to reverse an erosion of rights concordant with government given too much power and control.
So, although the homicide rate plummeted in 2014, the latest year for available statistics, to just 4.5 per 100,000 people — the lowest rate since 4.6 in 1963 — the narrative that militarized, aggressive policing is necessary for public safety has so beset the American mind frame as to be an irreversible reality.
‘What about terrorism?’ many might ask. ‘Aren’t terrorists a real threat?’
Again, despite ever-present paranoia from politicians and their corporate media mouthpieces, the short answer is No.
While there has been a noticeable uptick in recent years in terrorism perpetrated in Western nations — such attacks elsewhere as well as the causes of terrorism would be better left to a separate article — terror attacks have been nowhere near as deadly as the 1970s and 1980s.
In no way is this meant to excuse terrorist acts or discount the deaths of any innocents, anywhere — but for the purposes of illustrating relative safety, those figures do not lie.
But what the homicide and terrorism data prove instead, when taken with increasingly militaristic and overly-aggressive policing, is the normalization of what John W. Whitehead in Battlefield America terms the police-industrial complex. We are witnessing the outgrowth of American military empire run amok and come home to roost, and its ever-present propaganda meant to validate its very existence.
If the atmosphere domestically feels more dangerous than ever before, in other words, it’s by design — not because any greater threat looms over us than any time previously.
As American imperialism and domination circles the drain, the State realizes discontent and dissidence could realistically lead to a growth in insurgent acts by its citizens — up to, and possibly including, full-on insurrection.
So, while the government constantly proffers legislation and other means to severely diminish rights for the comfort of illusory security, the only rational response is resistance, scrutiny, vigilance — and above all, to employ cold facts against what it hopes will be an emotional reaction to altogether needless fears.
Claire Bernish writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.
Two words…
MARTIAL LAW…
Always be a light that is shininginthedark.c…
The only serious danger is from the powers that shouldn’t be.
This guy barack is so delusional it’s F-ing creepy! Sitting in front of a bunch of germs telling them the USA isn’t divided. Take a look at comments…..well anywhere! For being a softy he sure does instigate…
I agree. A militarized police force is a frightening prospect.
ahhhhhh, it’s already here and growing
Only because official war has not been declared on us by this pseudo-military in our midst, and they imagine they are sneaking up on us. The cast-off weapons they’re being gifted haven’t worked out so well against Afghani tribesmen in a country the size of Texas, armed with this-that-and-the-other (much like a hundred million or so Americans) which the supposed greatest military in world history somehow cannot seem to conquer in the longest-running war in US history. We paid for all this ordnance, now we get to see it being paraded down Main Street by Billy Bob and Wanda June, wearing badges we supposedly voted for.
Dangerous, maybe. “Frightening prospect?” No, New Jefferson, I see it more as a comical prospect.
My comment was just monitored by the evil eye of Activist Post. Another stroke of the whip by those in power protecting your consciousness from my freedom of expression.
What is it about NAU North American Utopia that people don’t understand after all Britain the Distaste of European Union voted to leave under Article 50 but the Politicunts have refused to implement the Will of the People.
The no-name potus of the Usurped States is the worst potus of my time. Divide and conquer. The divisions are increasing and so are the tensions. Race baiting is a leftist tool to foster unrest.From false flags to hoaxes the beast in the east rages and the non investigating MSM spews forth the narrative. A few odd shots and odd crisis actors and wahla ya got yerself a real world event. Odd how cops pose as peace keepers yet they incite more often than not.
It is not just Obama, this has been planned for a long time.
In the UK where over 80% of the police patrol unarmed, there is far less shooting deaths of citizens AND police officers, which is why police there do NOT want to be armed. I always insert that FACT in the comment sections after articles about police violence. WHY do we allow our police to be armed when we know it foments violence against both them and the citizens they are supposedly protecting?
Something is just not right. Wouldn’t skirmishes between gangs and the police with these military weapons be common by now…if they are really opposed to each other?
Interesting point, Best. Uncle Sam has for years been giving out MRAPs to combat crime in the streets. By now they should have cleaned up South Central and East LA, the Chicago projects, Detroit, and Washington DC.
What’s the holdup, fellas?
Because militarized police are not for fighting crime. They are for enforcing them – the crimes of the obama–UN policies of the takeover of America’s sovereignty and prosperity, once the draconian Agenda treaties are implemented, through the use the unlawful, unconstitutional martial law Militarization is not to protect us but to control us.
Activist Post: What is the HOLD UP??? I pray to God this is not another Hillary Clinton lookalike MSM “post”.. PRINT THE TRUTH.. PRINT THE REASON FBI COULD NOT, WOULD NOT, INDITE AND PROSECUTE THIS BEAST. SHE IS MENTALLY ILL, AND DANGEROUSLY MENTALLY ILL.. LET THE TRUTH BE PUBLISHED, SHAVE OR GET THE HEY AWAY FROM THE MIRROR! SOMEBODY.. PLEASE.. JUST BE HONEST FOR A CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Again, Activist Post.. from one of your regular, avid, readers.. What the hey is the hold up?? Print this.. the TRUTH about this woman! She is the single most dangerous woman in the U.S. She is a total and complete Psychotic, and THIS is the reason why FBI did not prosecute her! She is so mentally ill she cannot form INTENT. A Psychotic. Hello? Is America so stupid that they cannot understand the English language? Or, is this “selective understanding”?
Print Hillary Clinton’s REAL Profile.. sent below.. Print this.. Print it.
These cops serve their masters and no doubt are unable to think for themselves They have been programed to install fear into the public and who knows many may have had parts of their brains messed up to turn them into killers, nothing would surprise me as we see more and more of this madness every day and there is an evil agenda behind every nasty situation. The power elite who serve the DEVIL plan to take all of your freedom and rights away and how they do this is by creating fear, so much that you will hand over your freedom, because this evil force is a slithering low life coward it get’s others to do the dirty work even the police need to wake up I mean if one is a cop, you would know that there are other means to arrest someone if it was necessary without pulling a gun. It is obvious that many have been programed, because all human nature would act in a different way. If thee public fight back at the police with machine guns then they deserve it, because they are murdering thugs.
eisenhower wanred about the “military industrial complex” back in the 50s. did anyone listen, no. People still enlist in teh miltiary in droves and obey gvnt and believe teleivsion. They need to demand the kicking out of bankers, the cancellation of debts, the scaling back of military, and go on the offensive against fascism that is taking over not just the us, but the world.
I left a comment on the corporate site Breitbart explaining how police are not on our side and I got tons of angry responses. The masses of conservatives there are totally clueless.
Like they say, everybody has one.