Is America a Police state?

[Thruve]

From what I heard...people protesting were unaware that a bottle was thrown. I skeptical of the claim that something was thrown given the fact that earlier in the day the police chief said that he would like it if the protesting was "limited" to daylight hours and that people would go back to their homes by then. With an attitude like that toward one's civil liberties I'm not convinced something was thrown and becoming more and more convinced they wanted people to simply comply with their military style of policing.....But I see no reason they should have used tear gas on the press.

I agree. Welcome to the police state.

 

[Wirey]

This is great. They murder a kid, attack protestors (tear gassing the press is not law enforcement), and now everyone's tax dollars will go up in smoke.

 

[Thruve]

This is great. They murder a kid, attack protestors (tear gassing the press is not law enforcement), and now everyone's tax dollars will go up in smoke.

Atleast this is required of this instance, rather that it being wasted on numerous others that are just.. *fill in the blank*.

 

[Dirty Penguin]

https://twitter.com/BFriedmanDC/status/499728733830676480

The gentleman on the left has more personal body armor and weaponry than I did while invading Iraq.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Protesters. Looting, burning down businesses, is Not an excuse by any means regardless of the situation. Also, hopefully to replace the police.

What can you really expect though when the community has been betrayed? It is taking it out on the wrong target, and creating more innocent victims, but it also falls on those "controlling" the protests who provoke violence by resorting to violence.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

The riot threw bottles at the police, forgot the abbreviation for the specific unit that deals with riots, which at that very moment signifies an unlawful protest. The moment something is thrown, its done. Justified? idk, thats a decision for you to make, but it was declared an illegal protest. Here in palm Beach county theres a KKK meeting once every so often. A kkk Meeting? Yessir! A KKK meeting, and it's legal, as long as they don't do anything illegal such as burning people, etc. A deputy told me that he was assigned to watch and protect the KKK (The KKK asked for assistance) during their protest. He said they were screaming eff the jews, blacks, etc, etc, but that it was all legal. Its redic.. but... thats how it is. However, The moment a KKK member spots a Jew and throws something at him, its all over.

Did you notice that those tear gas cans were exploding? I googled it because that seemed... different... and I just learned that they explode to keep them HOT HOT HOT so that no one is tempted to pick it back up and throw it back at the police. Apparently dripping hot phosphorus = goodbye hand.

The candlelight vigils began the night of the shooting. Tensions were rising from the beginning because of the number of people congregating from the neighborhood clearly upset at the witnesses who spoke about an officer shooting an unarmed kid 9 times. They held candles and prayed. As they grew in number, so did the riot gear and the attack dogs. Then came the tear gas, then the tanks, the concussion grenades, the paramilitary forces.

They were there singing and chanting for justice. Chanting "no justice, no peace", while mistaken for chanting "kill the police."

Protests remain. All my buddies are okay. One was pelted badly in her abdomen. But they're in the area now feeding the mourners under pop up tents.

Police forces are still there with guns pointed at them, and attack dogs ready to be let loose.

So, my bad feeling last night was nerves. Sadly I had no bacon when I got home. That's a shame!

 

[Aquitaine]

Jeez - those police officers look like soldiers!

 

[Thruve]

The candlelight vigils began the night of the shooting. Tensions were rising from the beginning because of the number of people congregating from the neighborhood clearly upset at the witnesses who spoke about an officer shooting an unarmed kid 9 times. They held candles and prayed. As they grew in number, so did the riot gear and the attack dogs. Then came the tear gas, then the tanks, the concussion grenades, the paramilitary forces.

They were there singing and chanting for justice. Chanting "no justice, no peace", while mistaken for chanting "kill the police."

Protests remain. All my buddies are okay. One was pelted badly in her abdomen. But they're in the area now feeding the mourners under pop up tents.

Police forces are still there with guns pointed at them, and attack dogs ready to be let loose.

So, my bad feeling last night was nerves. Sadly I had no bacon when I got home. That's a shame!

Hopefully, if this deputy is indicted, the judge will make an example of him. We've yet to see a cop been made an example of for the nation to see. Everyone cries JUSTICE and hopefully we will see justice this time. The reactions of everyone in the nation is what I'm really curious to see.

 

[CynthiaCypher]

Jeez - those police officers look like soldiers!

Because they are. We have allowed the militarization of police and now we are reaping the whirlwind because of it.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Jeez - those police officers look like soldiers!

They just don't look, there movements even seem more akin to military than police.

 

[Revoltingest]

They just don't look, there movements even seem more akin to military than police.

The US military has a program to sell police departments such gear (grenades,
armored personnel carriers, etc) at steep discounts. Guess who is the commander
in chief of the military? Can't look to him for a change in this course.
Hillary portends more of the same. Is that Rand Paul looking less crazy now?

 

[Dirty Penguin]

Make one want to move to the mountains away from the nonsense.....

SWAT Team Barges in Assaults Two Children, Smashes Everything. Whoops Wrong House | The Free Thought Project

WOW!!!

 

[Dirty Penguin]

The US military has a program to sell police departments such gear (grenades,
armored personnel carriers, etc) at steep discounts. Guess who is the commander
in chief of the military? Can't look to him for a change in this course.
Hillary portends more of the same. Is that Rand Paul looking less crazy now?

I think Rand Paul is all talk....There's money to be made in these types of tactics and I'm not convinced he would have the power to buck the status quo. I'd give him kudos if he could....

 

[Revoltingest]

I think Rand Paul is all talk....There's money to be made in these types of tactics and I'm not convinced he would have the power to buck the status quo. I'd give him kudos if he could....

Right.
Since he might not actually de-militarize the police as promised, better
vote for someone who's OK with our current direction....just to be safe.

Where's the money to be made in selling military materiel at a steep
discount? They could make more selling it to foreign governments.

 

[freethinker44]

They just don't look, there movements even seem more akin to military than police.

They look like what movies think soldiers should be. I was in the army for 10 years, they don't look like soldiers, they look like they saw one too many action movies.

Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore knows a thing or two about this kind of thing, having been dispatched to New Orleans in 2005 to lead recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina. What authorities in Ferguson should have done, he said, is have "front line policemen" to face protesters, not a SWAT team.
You're in trouble when your SWAT team is on the front line of dealing with a civil disturbance.
"The tactics they are using, I don't know where they learned them from," Honore said Thursday on "CNN Newsroom." "It appears they may be making them up on the way. But this is escalating the situation."

Ferguson: Some rip police tactics, military equipment - CNN.com

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The US military has a program to sell police departments such gear (grenades,
armored personnel carriers, etc) at steep discounts. Guess who is the commander
in chief of the military? Can't look to him for a change in this course.
Hillary portends more of the same. Is that Rand Paul looking less crazy now?

Nope. The current may directly sell it, but Paul is the sort that would turn it over to the free market, which would not only still militarize the police, it would eradicate all accountability and there would be even less the public could do to try and change that, as the market for war has a perpetual and egregious hunger, and by any measure is out of the control of regular consumers.

They look like what movies think soldiers should be. I was in the army for 10 years, they don't look like soldiers, they look like they saw one too many action movies.

Ferguson: Some rip police tactics, military equipment - CNN.com

It must be the clips I have seen then, which have shown a few moving in ways similar to clips of the urban fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

[Dirty Penguin]

Right.
Since he might not actually de-militarize the police as promised, better
vote for someone who's OK with our current direction....just to be safe.

Where's the money to be made in selling military materiel at a steep
discount? They could make more selling it to foreign governments.

No one's advocating voting for someone that's going to continue heading in this direction but I think it's naive to put ones hopes behind Rand Paul thinking he's going to effect change. I say he talks a good game because I've seen nothing substantial from him so far. He's apparently working with Corey Booker on some initiatives dealing with incarcerations but it remains to be seen how many of his fellow Republicans he can bring on board with said initiative.


And the money to be made is not in selling cheap equipment rather it's to be made using said equipment in conjunction with arrest with the potential to boost incarceration numbers.

 

[Thruve]

lol, well I bet that county had been dying to pull out that dusty equipment, and this was their chance.

 

[Thruve]

Researching methods to pick up hot phosphorous so one knows how to throw tear gas back at law enforcement.

 

[Dirty Penguin]

Researching methods to pick up hot phosphorous so one knows how to throw tear gas back at law enforcement.

Depending on what it will burn through. I say devise a kind of lacrosse stick capable of scooping it up and with that kind of stick you'd be able to through it very far...