Don Quijones — The Deadly Threat of Non-Lethal Weapons

…non-lethal weapons represent a fast-growing multi-billion dollar business for military contractors. According to the report Non-Lethal Weapons: Technologies and Global Market 2012-2020, published by Homeland Security Research, the Non-Lethal Weapons (NLW) market is forecast to emerge as a key domain for asymmetric warfare and law enforcement technology providers: 

“Governments worldwide have undoubtedly understood the function of non-lethal weapons following lessons learned in Egypt, Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan. Unforeseen street riots and mass demonstrations over the last decade have revealed the loopholes in the security dogma of the 21st century.” 

“There is a growing demand from combatant commanders, law enforcement officers and political establishments for NLW capabilities. This demand is driven by the need to help them win the hearts and minds of the non-combatant population and prevent world outcry and media attention due to non-combatant casualties. As a result, many governments have entered into non-lethal weapons R&D and procurement dedicated to the full spectrum of public safety, law enforcement, crowd control and asymmetric warfare.“…

Besides the clear dangers they pose to human health, non-lethal weapons arguably pose an even graver threat to the basic notion of civil engagement that underpins any system of participatory democracy. The rights of assembly and peaceful protest are — and must remain — fundamental pillars of any self-respecting democracy (which obviously excludes Spain these days). However, the use of non-lethal weapons to police public demonstrations risks enshrining a collective punishment approach to public order policing which would, in turn, effectively mean the de-facto criminalisation of virtually all forms of political or social protest. 

While “non-lethal”, or better put “less lethal”, weapons may offer police forces and governments the enticing prospect of enhanced social control — especially at a time when economic and political forces are alienating both the lower and middle ranks of society — they would do well to remember the following cautionary words from the late John F Kennedy:

“Those who make peaceful protest impossible make violent revolution inevitable.”

Raging Bull-Shit

The Deadly Threat of Non-Lethal Weapons

Don Quijones

Alejandra Matos — Low-flying helicopters cause a stir in Twin Cities

Minneapolis and St. Paul police, along with the US Military, are conducting training exercises for the next three evenings from 8 p.m. to midnight, according to a Minneapolis Police spokesman.

In 2012, the agencies conducted similar training.

Hope everyone there feels safer.

Star-Tribune
Low-flying helicopters cause a stir in Twin Cities
Alejandra Matos

The Economist — Cops or soldiers?

America’s police have become too militarised

 Ya think?

Peter Kraska, a professor at Eastern Kentucky University’s School of Justice Studies, estimates that SWAT teams were deployed about 3,000 times in 1980 but are now used around 50,000 times a year. Some cities use them for routine patrols in high-crime areas.

Baltimore and Dallas have used them to break up poker games. In 2010 New Haven, Connecticut sent a SWAT team to a bar suspected of serving under-age drinkers. That same year heavily-armed police raided barber shops around Orlando, Florida; they said they were hunting for guns and drugs but ended up arresting 34 people for “barbering without a licence”. Maricopa County, Arizona sent a SWAT team into the living room of Jesus Llovera, who was suspected of organising cockfights. Police rolled a tank into Mr Llovera’s yard and killed more than 100 of his birds, as well as his dog. According to Mr Kraska, most SWAT deployments are not in response to violent, life-threatening crimes, but to serve drug-related warrants in private homes.

He estimates that 89% of police departments serving American cities with more than 50,000 people had SWAT teams in the late 1990s—almost double the level in the mid-1980s. By 2007 more than 80% of police departments in cities with between 25,000 and 50,000 people had them, up from 20% in the mid-1980s (there are around 18,000 state and local police agencies in America, compared with fewer than 100 in Britain).

The Economist
Cops or soldiers?

Rodney Balko — DOJ Agency Warns Of Police Militarization

In the monthly e-newsletter for the Justice Department's Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) program, Senior Policy Analyst Karl Bickel sounds the alarm about the militarization of America's domestic police forces. Here's his conclusion:

Police chiefs and sheriffs may want to ask themselves—if after hiring officers in the spirit of adventure, who have been exposed to action oriented police dramas since their youth, and sending them to an academy patterned after a military boot camp, then dressing them in black battle dress uniforms and turning them loose in a subculture steeped in an “us versus them” outlook toward those they serve and protect, while prosecuting the war on crime, war on drugs, and now a war on terrorism—is there any realistic hope of institutionalizing community policing as an operational philosophy?

The Huffington Post
DOJ Agency Warns Of Police Militarization
Radley Balko

Radley Balko — As The Drug War Escalates, SWAT Teams Become 'Bullies With Badges And Guns'

Former Sheriff William "Dub" Lawrence has watched with dismay as America's war on drugs has escalated, and SWAT teams have become more aggressive, more militarized, and less focused on resolving disputes peacefully.

"SWAT teams have been infiltrated by bullies with badges and guns who foster a mentality that killing criminals reduces recidivism," he says. "We're on the wrong track. I look at what's happened to law enforcement today, and I'm ashamed and heartbroken by what I see. We've lost sight of what's important. We've lost sight of what the job should be about, which is protecting the constitutional rights of the people."

The Huffington Post
As The Drug War Escalates, SWAT Teams Become 'Bullies With Badges And Guns'

Radley Balko

Mixture of hooliganism and hard fascism right here in the good old USA.

Between the war on drugs and the war on terror, human right and civil rights are down the toilet.

Radley Balko — Shot to Death by Police for Betting on a Football Game? The Rise of Paramilitary Force in America

Heavily armed SWAT teams are increasingly used for such small tasks as raiding poker games and trying to stop underage drinking. How did we get here?

AlterNet
Shot to Death by Police for Betting on a Football Game? The Rise of Paramilitary Force in America
Radley Balko

And you wonder why Libertarians are doing well politically?

Eric Dolan — Pennsylvania police chief: F*ck all you libtards out there, you take it in the a**

Pennsylvania police chief: F*ck all you libtards out there, you take it in the a** (via Raw Story )

The mayor of Gilberton, Pennsylvania is standing by her city’s police chief despite a series of profanity-laced and threatening videos. In a video that has received wide attention, police chief Mark Kessler repeatedly tells those upset by his use…

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Radley Balko — 7 Ways The Obama Administration Has Accelerated Police Militarization

There were signs that President Barack Obama might rein in the mass militarization of America's police forces after he won the White House. Policing is primarily a local issue, overseen by local authorities. But beginning in the late 1960s with President Richard Nixon, the federal government began instituting policies that gave federal authorities more power to fight the drug trade, and to lure state and local policymakers into the anti-crime agenda of the administration in charge. These policies got a boost during Ronald Reagan's presidency, and then another during President Bill Clinton's years. Under President George W. Bush, all of those anti-drug policies continued, but were supplemented by new war on terrorism endeavors -- yet more efforts to make America's cops look, act and fight like soldiers....

Indeed, in his first interview after taking office, Obama's drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, said that the administration would be toning down the martial rhetoric that had dominated federal drug policy since the Nixon years. "Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," Kerlikowske told The Wall Street Journal. "We're not at war with people in this country."

Unfortunately, while not insignificant, the change in rhetoric has largely been only that. The Obama administration may no longer call it a "war," but there's no question that the White House is continuing to fight one. Here's a quick rundown of where and how Obama's policies have perpetuated the garrison state:

The Huffington Post
7 Ways The Obama Administration Has Accelerated Police Militarization
Radley Balko

Fascism Watch — Alexander Reed Kelly: The Pentagon’s Preparations for War Against Us

A score of recent defense department and other official documents warn that climate change, energy shocks and economic crisis could trigger waves of civil unrest. The understanding seems to explain the proliferation of security and surveillance programs over the last decade....

Nafeez Ahmed, the Guardian contributor who deserves great credit for compiling excerpts from these documents for the public, concluded his article on the subject by saying: “The Pentagon knows that environmental, economic and other crises could provoke widespread public anger toward government and corporations in coming years. The revelations on the NSA’s global surveillance programmes are just the latest indication that as business as usual creates instability at home and abroad, and as disillusionment with the status quo escalates, Western publics are being increasingly viewed as potential enemies that must be policed by the state.”

Truthdig
The Pentagon’s Preparations for War Against Us
Adapted from KCRW by Alexander Reed Kelly

More here:

The Guardian
Pentagon bracing for public dissent over climate and energy shocks
Dr Nafeez Ahmed is executive director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development

This is greatly strengthening the Libertarianism, making increasingly likely that Libertarians will successfully take over the GOP and eventually dominate US government.

I don't see that implying anything but a change in personalities in the power structure, however, since the likelihood is high that Libertarians who eventually succeed will be control freaks addicted to power themselves. Money and power are addictive. It's easy to convince oneself that one is John or Jane Galt when one believes in "meritocracy" and one is on top.