Militarization of Police a Danger to Pets

I’ll keep this short because it is a bit off-topic but relevant. Elisa Black-Taylor writes quite a lot about the behavior of the police in the USA. Elisa reports on incidents of police shooting dogs.

I am told that these shooting are often unjustified. Police also shoot or beat to death cats sometimes. I wonder if this tendency to overuse violence against pets is partly due to the gradual militarization of the police.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the disturbing change in the way the police conduct themselves. There is a blurring of the boundaries between the military and the police.

An example of this is the police raid on the home of a military veteran (ironically) who was growing small quantities of marijuana in his basement. A SWAT style army of policemen invaded his home having smashed his door down and commenced a shoot out with the vet. The U.S. military veteran thought the police were criminals and defended himself with a handgun. I can see why he thought the police were criminals. They behaved like criminals and scared him to death.

The military vet, Mr. Stewart, killed a policeman and wounded six. The police fired about 250 rounds of ammunition. Stewart fired 31. He was shot twice. He hanged himself in his cell after being arrested for murder and other charges.

What happened to the friendly bobby on the street corner answering questions politely? The police are becoming more hostile and more defensive. They are arming themselves with more weaponry and military-style equipment. This change in police culture would seem to encourage the shooting of dogs and cats rather than taking a more sensitive approach that would be far more constructive and humane.

On occasion, the police are creating criminal activity through their antagonistic and violent behavior against peaceful citizens. It is time to take stock and rethink. What has driven the police to behave like this?

The UK is similar. It is difficult to have a peaceful demonstration in the UK without the police interfering and causing problems simply by their oppressive presence.

I think this is post-9/11 anti-terrorism paranoia. In 2005 in the USA there were 50,000 SWAT style raids. In the 1970s there were a few hundred. Society is becoming less democratic and less pleasant and cats and dogs are in danger from the very people who should protect us from danger.

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Comments

Militarization of Police a Danger to Pets — 11 Comments

Caroline on July 26, 2013 at 5:57 am said:
Michael, if any of you on cats.org would like to txt me on My bebe Mr. Snowden, nd I will, will keep tha tright up there… go ahead. I’m waiting…
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- Caroline on July 26, 2013 at 6:06 am said:
  We WILL reliwve them of their arms, because we have backups, within those that we care about. Incl. our own w/in the police. [they are not ALL bad. check out my webpage.]
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Ruth (Monty's Mom) on July 25, 2013 at 2:24 am said:
One of my family’s best friends when I was a child and even before I was born was the police chief of Lake Delton. A few years ago a police detective from West Allis gave me lots of help researching songs about West Allis history– he was also the head of the historical society. I also interviewed a retired police officer and WW II vet to get information for the song about Herman the police dog. My Uncle Fred was the police chief of Blue Island, a suburb of Chicago. I think about all these men and then read about these police officers killing dogs and trampling on people’s rights and they just seem a world apart. There is no similarity at all between the old timers– people who entered the police force before I was born or when I was a child– and people entering that field today. To think that they are the same is dangerous. The people I knew who were cops had a high degree of social skills, a sense of humor and just generally radiated the feeling that they were comfortable in their own skin– they had a sense of confidence about them. I think so many today don’t have that at all– any of it. They are quick to pull the trigger because they know how to shoot, but they don’t understand human nature, they don’t feel confident and they get treated like crap by the general public and let it get to them to the point that they become dangerous. People should treat officers with more respect, because of the office they hold. But put some people on the force who are actually worthy of respect, and I think it would be a lot easier. I’m sure some officers are like those I knew growing up– but it’s on them to weed out the bad ones, not defend them, not cover things up.
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- marc on July 25, 2013 at 3:58 pm said:
  I agree Ruth – cops aren’t how they used to be. Also it’s the covering up that adds insult to injury. It’s quite scary. They can do no wrong in the books but if you make a wrong turn you might get tazered. I’m genuinely frightened of these kinds of cops.
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Harvey Harrison on July 24, 2013 at 10:27 am said:
There is a great deal of convincing evidence that the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center was a put up job. The collapse of the buildings was typical of well-done demolitions. Steel frame buildings just do not collapse into their own footprints from a fire at the top. Furthermore a 3rd building which was not affected in any way by impacts also collapsed demolition style. Full details are available on YouTibe. This engineered “terrorist attack” enabled the Patriot act to be passed unanimously by Congress which ni-passes all constitutional rights and places all power in the hands of the president. It is enshrined in the US Constitution that only Congress can take the decision to go to war. Now the president has that sole right. The militarisation of the police is just one small step in placing more power in the hands of government, but this process began a long time ago as a consequence of the war against drugs and organised crime.
The Trayvon-Zimmerman case was hyped into a black-white racial issue, which ot is not. Latinos in the USA, most of them recent, view the Negro population as competing for the same jobs and are very hostile to them. This was a latino versus black issue, a turf war. The general public and media cannot relate to this and can only see everything in black and white.
They are all briefed-up with their pre-determined attitudes and clichés about discrimination against blacks. So latino Zimmerman suddenly becomes and Anglo-Saxon white. They missed the point completely. So if Obomber jumps into the defence of Trayvon he risks aggravating the latinos who don’t like him very much anyway.
In all of this cats and dogs sadly don’t matter at all.
PS. In effect the USA is now a military dictatorship with the president at the top and no democratically elected Congress to mediate. Stay away from that place. Ordinary people have no rights.
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Ruth aka Kattaddorra on July 24, 2013 at 10:05 am said:
This is very frightening! There seems to be no laws there about the Police having to treat everyone with respect, even criminals, like they are supposed to here and most do, in our town anyway, because they know they could be in serious trouble if they don’t.
There is no way the police there are ever going to respect animals if they don’t respect humans.
It doesn’t bear thinking about.
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Marc on July 24, 2013 at 7:56 am said:
Michael this is a very serious subject – I was just watching the collaterol murder video with excerpts from one of the soldiers who appeared on the scene after those innocent men were shot to death by soldiers who enjoy killing. I think everybody should watch that to understand where terrorism comes from.
America is turning into the opposit to what it once represented and in my opinion the idea of a militarized police force is the last step in that change. The army is one thing and a very very bad thing but when it is the police on it’s own people that is another thing. I’m glad the wall street journal is reporting on this awful subject.
Another very frightening thing about the US is the government control over media and propoganda style reporting. The whole snowden affair has been cleverly avoided by turning a story about a bad law (stand your ground) into some kind or racial thing which it clearly and obviously is not – is not the cause. It’s the stand your ground law which must be abolished immediately. Anyhow. Guns bring more guns and laws like that turn it into a necessity for the police to militarize – one might also say. Personally I think it’s too far gone. There are too many problems from all angles, government secrecy, military impunity and creation of terrorism as well as internal issues with guns and people who are very very poor and a low quality education system. I don’t see how it can really come out of it. It’s just a long slippery slope into totalitarianism and fascism of some kind with a sort of slant on world domination.
I think the most famous words that stick in my mind are when bush said ‘you are either with us or against us’ – that is no good, no good can come of that. You cant say that. If only the US government had some shame, or recognition of what it looks like in the mirror – it probably doesnt care. Detroit has gone bust, bankrupt, and yet the government is spending peoples tax dollars on murdering innocent people on the other side of the world and those tax payers don’t even know that because of the way it gets reported in the US. The US still thinks it won world war 2. It’s dangerous. The government over there is lethal. Militarisation of police is just a logical step. I promise you in 50 years from now there will be double the amount of people who hate the west – I think europe and england especially should just let go of the US now and let them have the problems they create. We don’t owe them anything at this point. Countries and people have been destroyed on a chase after a very small group of people who are ‘bad’ – aqnd it’s just created more of these so called bad people. I don’t blame them on some level. If only the american people knew what their army and government is doing in other countries – they wouldn’t allow it I’m sure of that.
I think the one thing which snowden said which everybody has long since forgotten but which is in some way the most important “more poeple in the US are killed by the police than will ever be killed by terrorists” – but the US media is still all into discussing the messenger and not the message and now this convenient battle of race over trayvon to give Obomber a good image and make everybody forget what the real issues are. The least they could do with that story is admit it’s not about race but about laws and guns.
It’s driving me a little bit crazy. I’m actually starting to sympathise with people I never thought I would.
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- Marc on July 24, 2013 at 8:14 am said:
  Michael I just read that disturbing article in the wall street journal. At least somebody is reporting properly. People in the force and the police force have such a bad name because many of them can’t be trusted. Half of them would be criminals if they weren’t police just because they simply are people who like to fight and kill – nothing more and nothing less. Government gone out of control.
  England too – but without the violence, just the secrecy and foreign policy and being america’s lap dog.
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  - Michael on July 24, 2013 at 9:21 am said:
    I feel it is very serious too. I think this a very serious backward step and I don’t know where it will end up, which is why I had to find a way to get into a cat website ;).
    Combined with America’s spying and hacking disclosures, where has democracy done? Out of the window. You can understand why people in undeveloped countries are ambivalent about America and why some people hate America.
    I hope Americans don’t take that the wrong way. They are lots of good things but the government has become paranoid about security and their agencies are misbehaving.
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  - Caroline on July 25, 2013 at 5:10 am said:
    Thank you, Marc. If you have some free time today, pls do check him out on his blog, TheAgitator.com
    A little bit of insight into his credentials (which we already know are impressive): http://reason.com/people/radley-balko/articles
    [note the cat ad ;)]
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    - marc on July 25, 2013 at 3:56 pm said:
      I’ve checked it out and gone to the blog too – a ton of information on there. Just on the first page he talks about the however many thousands of dogs the police have shot since 2010.
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