Ms_Armstrong !'s List: CST - Militarization of the Police

• first, the militarization of American police departments as a substitute for smart, proven but unsexy law enforcement techniques
• second, the growing awareness among African Americans that they and their children are in constant danger of being shot by cops because of institutionalized and subconscious racism. These are not independent issues.
• Research shows that militarization rarely works, and usually makes things worse
• Studies also show that police have the power to either lessen the tensions of an angry group of people or goad them into a riot
• For some of the best collections of studies on this topic, check out the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University. This group, which is consulted by law enforcement experts around the country, transforms much of the research on police tactics into a data matrix, showing in an easy to comprehend graphic which among more than 100 tactics and techniques have been shown to work, broken down by circumstances involving individuals, groups, small places, neighborhoods and jurisdiction.
• Not surprisingly, the most effective way to decrease crime and engender public support for law enforcement officers is through what is known as community policing and problem-oriented policing
• In one day, a smart cop defused one of the most dangerous police conflicts in recent memory
• The perception among African-Americans is that they are more likely to be assaulted by cops than white citizens, and they are right
• Between 1980 and 2000, the number of these paramilitary units exploded by 1,400 percent
• In other words, an arrested African-American is more likely to be killed by police during an arrest than any other race
• minority undercover officers have been killed significantly more often by colleagues than white ones

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• Since the 1960s, in response to a range of perceived threats, law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier.
• Concerns about potential abuse date back to the creation of the Constitution

• 1969, his SWAT team was ready for its maiden raid against a holdout cell of the Black Panthers.

  At about the same time, President                                             Richard Nixon                                        was declaring war on drugs. Among the new, tough-minded law-enforcement measures included in this campaign was the no-knock raid—a policy that allowed drug cops to break into homes without the traditional knock and announcement. After fierce debate, Congress passed a bill authorizing no-knock raids for federal narcotics agents in 1970.
• Congress repealed the no-knock law in 1974, but the policy would soon make a comeback (without congressional authorization).

• What would it take to dial back such excessive police measures? The obvious place to start would be ending the federal grants that encourage police forces to acquire gear that is more appropriate for the battlefield. Beyond that, it is crucial to change the culture of militarization in American law enforcement.
• Consider today's police recruitment videos (widely available on YouTube), which often feature cops rappelling from helicopters, shooting big guns, kicking down doors and tackling suspects. Such campaigns embody an American policing culture that has become too isolated, confrontational and militaristic, and they tend to attract recruits for the wrong reasons.
• SWAT teams have their place, of course, but they should be saved for those relatively rare situations when police-initiated violence is the only hope to prevent the loss of life. They certainly have no place as modern-day vice squads.

• Many longtime and retired law-enforcement officers have told me of their worry that the trend toward militarization is too far gone. Those who think there is still a chance at reform tend to embrace the idea of community policing, an approach that depends more on civil society than on brute force.

  In this very different view of policing, cops walk beats, interact with citizens and consider themselves part of the neighborhoods they patrol—and therefore have a stake in those communities. It's all about a baton-twirling "Officer Friendly" rather than a Taser-toting RoboCop.

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• Black drivers are twice as likely to be searched while stopped, although white drivers are more likely to have contraband.
• The response — which included the targeting and arrest of journalists — is proof of the Elaborated Social Identity Model, which suggests that a group of angry people can either be goaded into a riot or defused, depending on how they are treated by police.

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