David Rosen — Has the NYPD Become a Paramilitary Force?

"I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh largest army in the world," former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg boasted back in 2011.

Since that time, the New York Police Department has become even more militarized, practiced in command-and-control practices that Brooklyn College sociologist Alex Vitale describes as "paramilitary policing."

The federalization and militarization of the NYPD following 9/11 created the model of paramilitary policing that's reshaping law enforcement throughout the country.
Vitale identifies these seven qualities as the principal aspects of the increasingly popular framework of paramilitary policing:

• Surveillance and infiltration of nonviolent political organizations.

• Denial of protest permits and tight restrictions on demonstration locations.

• Heavy deployment and use of defensive equipment, such as body armor.

• The use of 'less lethal' weapons on non-violent protestors.

• Deployment of highly trained specialized police units to control demonstrations.

• Preemptive arrests and targeting of protest leaders.

• Coordination between local and federal law enforcement officials.

• Other practices often accompanying paramilitary policing include the use of sophisticated cyber technologies, video surveillance and agents provocateurs.

Truthout

Has the NYPD Become a Paramilitary Force?

David Rosen

Not to be outdone:

Nor are any booking records generated at Homan Square, as confirmed by a sworn deposition of a police researcher in late September, further preventing relatives or attorneys from finding someone taken there.

“The reality is, no one knows where that person is at Homan Square,” said Craig Futterman, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who studies policing. “They’re disappeared at that point.”

Welcome to Amerika. This is Gestapo tactics, plain and simple.

The Guardian

Homan Square revealed: how Chicago police 'disappeared' 7,000 people

Spencer Ackerman

NBC News
Jon Burge Case: Police Torture Scandal Still Casts Long Shadow Over ChicagoJon Schuppe