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This is an awful generalization, there are many veterans that see this as excessive and abhorrent. They left the Middle East to trade the military environment f

by ihsw 13y ago

This is an awful generalization, there are many veterans that see this as excessive and abhorrent. They left the Middle East to trade the military environment for quiet(er) civilian life.

arh68 13y ago
Yet they presumably chose to join the military, right? Is it really excessive and abhorrent to suggest that those who decide to join the military would tend towards militarized philosophies? They're not saints.
- tomgirl1 13y ago
  It is absolutely not true that local police forces are largely ex-military, or even close. They are by and large civil servants who have been handed a federally subsidized budget of military grade armaments from the dept of homeland security and been "militarized" by the federal govt. Tanks, automatic weapons, helicopters, bulletproof vests, helmets, armor piercing ammunition, bomb squads, all provided by the federal arms dealers. Any idea that the militarization of local and state police is driven by ex-veterans is not only factually wrong but a crazy excuse for the fact that the US federal government has been training them to militarize themselves. And once they have these toys, you might expect them to feel pretty powerful just for having them. In fact, I think you could make the opposite case, that actual veterans if they made up the police force would respect the constitution and would never treat US citizens on US soil in this manner.
mabhatter 13y ago
Real MILITARY soldiers are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice... Which is somewhat stricter and includes a lot of rules that are unconstitutional for crvilians. They also don't get to form unions, they get a chin of command and that's it. They break ORDERS and they get Courtmartialed. Our militarized police like to call the rest of us "civilians" but they run straight to their Union when any superior calls them out, and they hide behind the same lawyers as the rest of us and ask for favors from the prosecutor and court. We need to keep the teacher unions and break the police unions up, then subject them to higher standards of conduct, and LOWER standards of defense and evidence... We have allowed them to become a wild pack of dogs and they need caged up, put back on the leash, or put down.

by ihsw 13y ago

This is an awful generalization, there are many veterans that see this as excessive and abhorrent. They left the Middle East to trade the military environment for quiet(er) civilian life.

arh68 13y ago

Yet they presumably chose to join the military, right? Is it really excessive and abhorrent to suggest that those who decide to join the military would tend towards militarized philosophies? They're not saints.

tomgirl1 13y ago
It is absolutely not true that local police forces are largely ex-military, or even close. They are by and large civil servants who have been handed a federally subsidized budget of military grade armaments from the dept of homeland security and been "militarized" by the federal govt. Tanks, automatic weapons, helicopters, bulletproof vests, helmets, armor piercing ammunition, bomb squads, all provided by the federal arms dealers. Any idea that the militarization of local and state police is driven by ex-veterans is not only factually wrong but a crazy excuse for the fact that the US federal government has been training them to militarize themselves. And once they have these toys, you might expect them to feel pretty powerful just for having them. In fact, I think you could make the opposite case, that actual veterans if they made up the police force would respect the constitution and would never treat US citizens on US soil in this manner.

mabhatter 13y ago

Real MILITARY soldiers are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice... Which is somewhat stricter and includes a lot of rules that are unconstitutional for crvilians. They also don't get to form unions, they get a chin of command and that's it. They break ORDERS and they get Courtmartialed. Our militarized police like to call the rest of us "civilians" but they run straight to their Union when any superior calls them out, and they hide behind the same lawyers as the rest of us and ask for favors from the prosecutor and court. We need to keep the teacher unions and break the police unions up, then subject them to higher standards of conduct, and LOWER standards of defense and evidence... We have allowed them to become a wild pack of dogs and they need caged up, put back on the leash, or put down.