The war on terror has essentially turned police into occupying armies in some American communities, said a police and criminology expert.
Thomas
Nolan, an associate professor of criminology at Merrimack College and
former senior policy analyst with the Department of Homeland Security,
said the focus of police work had shifted greatly since he was a Boston
police officer in the 1980s and 1990s.
"I
remember it being drilled into me as a police officer, as a sergeant
and then as a lieutenant: partnership, problem-solving, and prevention -
the three Ps," Nolan said Wednesday during a panel sponsored by the
American Constitution Society.
He
said police were heavily trained to form alliances to help them to
better serve and protect communities, and he said those relationships
clearly don't exist in Ferguson, Missouri.
While
the war on drugs is frequently cited as a major factor in the breakdown
of civil liberties and police-community relations, Nolan said a more
recent shift was largely to blame.
"In
the early 2000s, particularly after 9/11, we saw a paradigm shift from
community policing and problem-oriented principles to the war on terror,
and we became Homeland Security police," said Nolan, who has worked in
the federal agency's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
He
said this shift toward "homeland security" had quickly destroyed the
relationships police had worked nearly two decades to build.
"I
think what has happened as a direct result of that, is that those
relationships that we forged, and worked so hard to attain and to
maintain in the late 1980s and early 1990s, began to erode because the
police were seen, particularly in communities of color, as an army of
occupation," Nolan said.
"If
you dress police officers up as soldiers and you put them in military
vehicles and you give them military weapons, they adopt a warrior
mentality," he continued. "We fight wars against enemies, and the
enemies are the people who live in our cities - particularly in
communities of color."
(snip)
Continue reading at Oath Keepers' national website, where you may leave
your comments as well as enjoy the video of this former senior policy
analyst for the Department of Homeland Security. This expert is not some
disgruntled citizen who is screaming about the militarization of our
police -- he is the former senior policy analyst at DHS and an
experienced, calm authority who is trying to help solve the problem of
police militarization and the American people's rejection of that
idiocy. The brief video will impress all viewers.
Ramping
up your news scans over the Ferguson, Missouri "state of emergency" and
expected roll-out of over a hundred DHS enforcement vehicles? You'll
want this video kept close at hand.
Salute!
Elias Alias, editor | 
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