Matthew Feeney Talks the Militarization of Police on RT

Credit: OregonDOT/flickr

I will be on RT in the 5pm ET hour talking about the militarization of police. 

Fellow Reason staffers Brian Doherty, Scott Shackford, and Mike Riggs have all recently written on the militarization of police. A collection of our coverage of the militarization of police (including Reason 24/7 coverage) can be found here. 

Watch live here from 5pm ET onwards. 

Comments

[John]

I am starting to take issue with the term "militarization". Militarys are disciplined, trained and accountable. Police forces are none of those things. I think calling them "militarized" is an insult to militarys. There needs to be a new term for this. Baboonization? Brownshirtization? Something.

[Almanian!]

The Supermodelization of teh cops.

For our favorite Olympic weight lifting God.

[Warty]

Cops totally get the best groupies, bro.

[tarran]

Paramilitirization, then.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I agree with tarran. The police are slowly, but surely, becoming paramilitary. Unfortunately, they are less like European Gendarmerie, and more like Latin American death squads.

[PS]

The European Gendarmerie are simply police with a pretentious French name. If you've got experience otherwise, pray tell.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm just referring to the fact that a gendarmerie is different than Anglo-American tradition of a police force in than a gendarmerie is under the jurisdiction of the military, where as a police force isn't. In the United States, a gendarmerie would be illegal under the Posse Comitatus Act.

[Brett L]

Infantimilitarization?

They only like the toys, they don't actually want to do hard stuff like gathering actionable intelligence before kicking in doors and shooting people. Watch a house to ensure you know who's inside before calling in the tactical team? That's like real work and shit.

[fish]

They only like the toys, they don't actually want to do hard stuff like gathering actionable intelligence before kicking in doors and shooting people. Watch a house to ensure you know who's inside before calling in the tactical team? That's like real work and shit.

What you fail to understand is that the producers of "Cops" won't film a cop at his desk doing research.

Law enforcement...like the NBA for half bright white guys!

[SugarFree]

Militarys are disciplined, trained and accountable. Police forces are none of those things.

That's why "militarization" is a good term. We already have a military and making the cops into one is stupid. We are giving baboons bayonets and cross our fingers and hoping real hard it all turns out.

[Rich]

I'll just leave this here.

[Hyperion]

Good gawd man, that's fucking hilarious!

[Brett L]

Holy. Shit. Handing that chimp a locked and loaded rifle may be the stupidest thing I've ever seen recorded on film.

[Hyperion]

It's a good thing he wasn't a little taller, or some of those guys could have wound up missing at least one nut.

I love the end part where he lifts the rifle over his head 'Look, me have fire stick!'

[Brett L]

Run, bitches! I am king.

[Episiarch]

It's a fake promo for the James Franco Rise of the Planet of The Apes if I'm not mistaken. No one would be stupid enough to actually give a fucking ape a loaded rifle. Oh wait, they do every day: they're called the police.

[Pro Libertate]

This is correct. I ran it on Monkey Tuesday a while back.

[Gene]

What could possibly go wrong?

[bmp1701]

Einsatzgruppenization

[Sarg221]

I think I have a solution to this. If we give them military grade weapons, we should hold them accountable just like real soldiers.
You want this M-4? The leave the union and take responsibility for your own actions.

[Almanian!]

But the uniforms are so KEWL!

[Josua]

Talking American militarization of police forces on Red-Fella TV. Okay. Next week, be sure to catch "Heavy Handed Governance" with North Korean State Television.

[Almanian!]

Me ruv yu rong time.

[Fist of Etiquette]

If you're going to declare war on your own citizens, why not dress the part? Porcine Fidelis!

[Bam!]

You know what's ironic? That the counterinsurgency strategy pursued by our military is basically policing.

[$park?]

That's nothing like having ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.

[John]

And it is a total bitch. That is the irony of the whole thing. Being a cop is actually hard and takes training. But kicking down doors and shooting shit doesn't take as much, especially when you are never held accountable for your fuckups. They are militarizing because they are lazy more than anything else.

[fish]

They are militarizing because they are lazy more than anything else.

They are militarizing because they know what's coming financially. Intimidation is cost effective!

[Francisco d Anconia]

Jesus I hope that's nothing more than your over active imagination combined with a bit of conspiracy theory.

[fish]

How do you see this ending?

Good government and the US living within its means or something much much worse?

[Episiarch]

Look, the cops need to be protected from the all-time low levels of crime we're at now. It's potentially somewhat dangerous out there, and them coming home to their families is way more important than you or your dog.

[Pro Libertate]

Ah. American jobs are on the line.

[ZinxMinx]

Welcome to the New Regime. Pretty scary stuff man.

http://www.AnonProx.da.bz

[Singerlovelife]

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[The Bearded Hobbit]

Probably no one will see this, but this belongs here.

http://www.privacysos.org/node/865

... Hobbit