Militarization of the Police
August 24, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
In speaking to the situation facing Black and Latino people in the U.S.—mass incarceration and the school-to-prison pipeline, the criminalization and demonization of a whole generation of youth, the overt or just-below-the-surface racism prevalent in society, etc.—Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party has said what is taking place is a slow genocide that could easily become a fast genocide. This regular feature highlights aspects of this slow genocide.
These last two weeks, the world has seen the massive military force deployed in Ferguson, Missouri, against people protesting the police murder of Michael Brown.
Ferguson, Missouri, August 18.
Photo: Li Onesto/revcom.us
The militarization of local police and its use against Black people is not new. It goes back to 1965, when the first Special Weapons and Tactical (SWAT) team was used against the Watts rebellion by the LAPD. In the 1990s, Congress created a Pentagon program that transfers "surplus" military equipment to local police forces in the name of fighting the "War on Drugs." It is SWAT teams, by various names, who use this equipment. After 9/11, the program grew. It's not known exactly how many of the 17,000 local law enforcement agencies (city police departments, sheriff's departments, state police departments, even campus police departments) in the United States have war-fighting equipment, but we do know that there is such ordnance in every state. According to a June 2014 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report, SWAT teams all over the country use federal government-supplied military equipment to execute search warrants, especially warrants looking for drugs. ("War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing")
We should not forget that the War on Drugs is code for war on the people, especially on Black people: Black and Latino people are 61 percent of all people impacted by SWAT raids in drug cases. In Allentown, Pennsylvania, Black people are "24 times more likely to be impacted by a SWAT raid" as white people. In Huntington, West Virginia, Blacks are 37 times more likely. In Ogden, Utah, 40 times more likely.
The militarization of the police is part and parcel of what Carl Dix has called the "counter-insurgency before the insurgency." When you look at what has happened in Ferguson, it's not hard to see how slow genocide could become a fast one.
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