Historically in America, we have revered our civil servants: firemen, policemen, teachers, and numerous other professionals who keep our towns running.<\/p>\n
Take policemen for example. In that Norman Rockwell version of America, the policeman was local, a part of our community. He was our neighbor, his kids were in Little League with ours, and he was in our Rotary meetings. There were human relationships there, a local sense of community pride and caring.<\/p>\n
An alarming trend has been on the lips of hundreds of thousands of Americans. The trend was covered quite well in Radley Balko\u2019s book, \u201cRise of the Warrior Cop\u201d. The book documents the reversal of the \u201cspirit\u201d of the Posse Comitatus act of 1878. The Act restricted the powers of the Federal Government in using federal military personnel to enforce laws.<\/p>\n
While the Act from 1878 does not legally cover DHS, a viral video in August shows a Marine Colonel at a Concord, NH town hall stating:
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s happening here is that we\u2019re building a domestic military, because it\u2019s unlawful and unconstitutional to use American troops on American soil,\u201d he says in the video. \u201cWe\u2019re building a domestic army, and we\u2019re shrinking the military, because the government is afraid of its own citizens\u2026 We\u2019re building an army over here, and I can\u2019t believe that people aren\u2019t seeing it. Is everybody blind?\u201d<\/p>\n
How did we get here?<\/p>\n
Federal money has been pouring into local police forces all over the nation for years. The Pentagon started giving out riot gear as \u201cfreebies.\u201d Local units accepted the Federal money. With that came, of course, riot gear training. The \u201c1033 Program\u201d gave out more than $500 million of military gear to U.S. police forces in 2011 alone.<\/p>\n
More than 500 of BearCat\u2019s, tank-like vehicles, have been sold by Lenco, its Massachusetts-based manufacturer by the end of 2011.<\/p>\n
Training has involved Federal money paying for disparate counties and states to come together for exercises. These police units have been advised that they may be dispatched to other regions, or states, in the event of a large scale situation. During an event, the police may be from states away, with heightened vigilance due to being in a foreign environment.<\/p>\n
When police have been trained to use riot gear, provided BearCat\u2019s and tank-like vehicles, and taught to shoot with the \u201cNo Hesitation\u201d\u00a0targets, it\u2019s no wonder news media has reported shocking stories of excessive force.<\/p>\n