Militarization of police
Concerns about the militarization of police have been raised by both ends of the political spectrum in the United States, with both the libertarian Cato Institute[14] and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)[15] voicing criticisms of the practice.
The police, using "non-lethal" weapons like pepper spray and rubber bullets while dressed from head to toe in ninja-like full battle gear, indiscriminately arrested both violent 'black bloc' demonstrators, known for their confrontational tactics and anarchist views, along with non-violent protestors marching peacefully."
[21] Minister of Justice Flávio Dino of the Lula administration that followed sought to restructure the organization, mentioning the 2022 election controversy and claiming that it had "deviated" from its main role,[22] requiring a "depoliticization".
[25] In 2010 the Ottawa Police Service bought a Lenco G3 BearCat APC for $340,000, which has "half-inch-thick military steel armoured bodywork, .50 caliber-rated ballistic glass, blast-resistant floors, custom-designed gun ports and ... a roof turret".
Police in Toronto used a sound cannon, or Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD)—a weapon that was developed for use in conflicts in the Middle East, as well as barricades, pre-emptive arrests and riot units.
"[41] During the Years of Lead, to deal with high-risk operational situations and also, specifically, as a result of the unsuccessful German response to the Munich massacre, NOCS (State Police) and GIS (Arma dei Carabinieri) were established, comparable to SWAT units from other countries.
They also received training which was assisted by the Special Air Service such as fast roping from helicopters, abseiling, live fire CQB exercises and methods of explosive entry for door breaching.
According to Julian Go of Boston University, police departments in the United States became increasingly militarized in the early 20th century as they "borrowed tactics, techniques, and organizational templates from America's imperial-military regime that had been developed to conquer and rule foreign populations".
George Fletcher Chandler, a veteran of the Pancho Villa Expedition and the first Superintendent of the New York State Police, was an early advocate of law enforcement officers wearing their weapons exposed on the outside of their uniforms.
Rohde traces "the origins of modern militarized policing" to the Cold War-era anti-communist paranoia, and the idea that domestic civil rights activists were similar to foreign enemies, as manifested in activities such as the CIA's Operation CHAOS.
The North Hollywood bank robbers carried fully automatic AK-47-style weapons with high capacity drum magazines and ammunition capable of penetrating vehicles and police Kevlar vests.
Police noted that the service pistols carried by the first responding officers had insufficient range and relatively poor accuracy, although a SWAT team eventually arrived with sufficient firepower.
[citation needed] SWAT teams, whose close quarters battle weaponry usually consisted of submachine guns that fired pistol cartridges such as the 9x19mm Heckler & Koch MP5, began supplementing them with AR-15 type rifles and carbines.
[73][full citation needed] As a result of this incident, the LAPD authorized its officers to carry .45 ACP caliber semiautomatic pistols as duty sidearms, specifically the Smith & Wesson Models 4506 and 4566.
[79] Data from 2006 to 2014 shows that local and state police departments obtained aircraft, helicopters, bayonets, knives, night-vision sniper scopes, tactical armored vehicles or MRAP's, rifles and weapons including grenade launchers, watercraft, and camouflage gear, among other military equipment.
The requirements changed after the September 11 attacks, with the 2001 Patriot Act which gave law enforcement officers permission to search a home or business without the owner's or the occupant's consent or knowledge, amongst other provisions, if terrorist activities were suspected.
For a time, the Patriot Act allowed for agents to undertake "sneak and peek"[citation needed] searches, a term used to describe breaking into a business or residence and entering without judicial oversight.
In 2015, journalist Radley Balko wrote an opinion column in which he described statements by politicians Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, and Dan Patrick that a "war on police" was taking place as "fact-free fear mongering" and a "dangerous game".
[97] In 1992, there was a deadly confrontation and a 12-day siege at Ruby Ridge in northern Idaho between Randy Weaver, his family and his friend Kevin Harris, and agents of the United States Marshals Service (USMS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
[104] In May 2011, the Pima County Sheriff's department killed Marine and Iraq war veteran Jose Guerena, when they entered his home while serving a search warrant related to a marijuana smuggling investigation.
Police academy education patterned after a military boot camp, military-type battle dress uniforms and black color by itself may produce aggression, as do the missions named wars on crime, on drugs, and on terrorism.
"[128] Chuck Canterbury, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, argued that the equipment received from the federal government had been properly de-militarized, and that it was being used to protect civilians from violent crime.
[134] In a January 2017 report Cato Institute criminal justice policy analyst Adam Bates argues that in the United States, "an increasingly militarized domestic police force" is characterized by "mission creep [that] has not been limited to weapons and tactics.
[148] The Chicago Police Department (CPD) have been accused of operating a secret "black site" in their Homan Square facility where suspects were held without being booked and registered and where they could not be found by their attorneys or families.
[150][151] In 2015, the Task Force for 21st Century Policing recommended restricting federal transfers of military surplus equipment, such as grenade launchers and armored vehicles, from the Defense Department to law enforcement agencies via the 1033 program.
SWAT teams are increasingly equipped with military-type hardware and are trained to deploy against threats of terrorism, for crowd control, and in situations beyond the capabilities of ordinary law enforcement, sometimes deemed "high-risk".
In 2010, a team of heavily armed Orange County, Florida, sheriff's deputies raided several barbershops, holding barbers and customers at gunpoint while they turned the shops inside out.
[169][170][171][172] A 2018 study published in the journal PNAS found that "militarized police units are more often deployed in communities with large shares of African American residents, even after controlling for local crime rates".
With military-grade vehicles, armor, assault weapons and robots, the raid on Guerena's home was all but indistinguishable from the kind of house-clearing operations U.S. forces perform every day in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Oathkeepers say on their website they are determined "to take a stand against the egregious policy of using SWAT teams to serve search warrants on veterans and gun owners with no violent criminal history.
