January 29, 2015

NYPD to treat protestors like terrorists

Vox - New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton unveiled a new militarized police unit that will be trained and armed with heavy protective gear, long rifles, and machine guns to restrain terrorists and social justice protesters.

Bratton explained the purpose of the unit, which will consist of 350 officers, to CBS New York:

It is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris.

Bratton's explanation says a lot about how the NYPD views protests over racial disparities in police use of force, which largely began in response to the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City. While the protests have been mostly peaceful, police continue treating demonstrators as a genuine threat — even lumping them up, as Bratton did, with terrorists who carried out attacks in Paris and Mumbai.

But treating lawful protesters like enemy combatants is exactly what helped thrust Ferguson into the national spotlight. Many of these protests grew more tense, particularly at the earlier stages, as a result of police overreacting with military-grade gear. Much of the nation watched in horror last August as officers deployed tear gas, sound cannons, and armored vehicles against crowds that were peacefully marching and chanting on the streets of Missouri.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to the expression "Kill a cop"?
I've even forgotten the original context, but not hard to imagine. This class of public employee is heavily burdened with its "task", and but also heavily compromised by a recruitment problem: the people attracted to the "profession" do not self filter. Its the ultimate "axe to grind" job. No wonder the notion "peace officer" has been scrapped. Itchy trigger finger disease is rife, anger/adrenalin complex is common, etc. etc.