The photo above isn’t from the recent demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri, following the killing of an unarmed African American teen. It’s over a decade old, a photo I took at a 2003 march in Portland, Oregon, protesting Bush and the Iraq war. I’d attended a number of marches and rallies in Portland before this and had never seen this kind of militaristic response by the police. Were they expecting trouble? Maybe, but not the kind that would demand military-style gear more appropriate for an occupying force in a hostile country than a police department in an urban U.S. setting.
Welcome to our post-9/11 WMDs: Weapons of Mass Deterrence. Counter-terrorism money from the Feds given to local jurisdictions was spent so overgrown children could play dangerous games of dress-up and shoot-em-up on our city streets.
There were no violent incidents during the Portland march. The police didn’t fire any tear gas or rubber bullets. But you have to wonder if some of them were disappointed they weren’t able to play with their new toys. How many of them were channeling Dirty Harry, thinking, “C’mon, protester, make my day”? After all, when you have all those cool, macho hammers, it’s natural to look around for nails you can pound into the ground.
The over-militarization of our police forces, treating criminals and protesters as enemy combatants, has a destructive counterpart in our schools, where students are being treated like potential criminals instead of young people who sometimes make mistakes. Campus guards have become the rule, many of them campus cops who are members of the local police department. While their job description says they are supposed to maintain order and keep people safe, too often they bust kids for minor offenses which the school administration should be dealing with. Young people with clean records get into trouble during the school day and have their first encounters with the criminal justice system. Schools are supposed to educate our children with the goal of giving them greater opportunities in their adult lives. In some communities, for some children, schools give students criminal records which rob them of opportunities which otherwise could have been theirs.
We’ve turned into a fearful society. We’re frightened of one another, so we enact zero tolerance policies which are supposed to keep us safe. Arrests for drugs and petty theft result in disproportionate prison sentences. People are stopped and frisked on the streets because they look dangerous, because they might be the kind of people who may have committed a crime, or might be thinking about committing a crime in the future. Young people are dragged out of school and down to police stations to be questioned and booked. And police go out into what they see as “the jungle,” the “little Beiruts” of our cities wearing clothing, driving vehicles and carrying weapons which are wildly disproportionate to the dangers they face, generating fear, hatred and, potentially, greater lawlessness, in the people they encounter.
This article appears in Aug 14-20, 2014.
This article follows the TUSD Superintendent’s announcement of new Student Resource Officers (SROs) in a couple of our middle schools and a number of our high schools. Personally, I share the misgivings identified here, although I am surprised that teachers often really appreciate these officers–not for being punitive, but for being quasi counselors for the kids. I wonder, though, how SB1070, where an Arizona police officer HAS TO consider the immigration status of the person in front of him/her, affects this position. Does this apply to SROs, who are NOT referred to as retired policemen in the Az. Daily Star Article….. Does it mean that we are effectively going to have immigration officers in our schools that have SROs?
Sorry, Francis, but Israel is not a theocracy. The closest you’ll find to a theocracy in this world is in Muslim nations, especially those adhering to an extreme interpretation of Sharia law. Your post also has nothing to do with David’s post, but thank you for sharing your views on Israel.
Rather than heeding the warning of the growing Congressional/military/industrial complex that Ike Eisenhower warned about has, the complex has grown like a cancer and American made weapons are used all over the world including our local police and sheriffs’ departments.
It is long past the time to heed Eisenhower’s warning. If local police and sheriffs’ departments continue down the road of seeing themselves at war, the public becomes the enemy and citizens get killed, and the killings are increasingly seen as collateral damage.
The Department of Defense exists to protect our nation from foreign entities, not to resell its arms at taxpayers’ expense only to spend more money buying bigger and more weapons from the weapons industry.
Let’s be clear regarding the difference between the military and policing.
I recall that there was a reason behind the Portland police showing up in battle gear. It was a period when so called “anarchists” were active in the US and Europe. Portland was one of the cities where the anarchist groups were active. They would show up for protests and escalate them by breaking windows and starting fires, throwing Molotov cocktails at the cops and even roughing up the locals. Check out the history of the anarchy movement back then and you will understand why the police might have overreacted, or reacted appropriately to the threat.
(It’s a big job, but whenever I can, I try to protect history from being rewritten)
Safier~ Extremely biased column against law enforcement, I must say. Maybe the next time you get robbed or your house broken into, you should request law enforcement to leave their “hammers” in the squad car when they arrive to protect you and your family’s safety.
You do nothing but further the notion of the media’s extreme left wing bias …
David,
I agree that police should not act as if they were an occupying military force on our streets, but I think ascribing negative motivation to the police who were in Portland is just lousy journalism. I, for one, expect more from you. If you had interviewed a few cops at that march and heard anything close to what you wrote in this column you should have said so. As it is, the motivation you projected onto the police could well be 100% incorrect and readers could well accuse you of libeling public servants.
By the way, the police do not make the laws, including the laws you don’t like. It is their job to enforce the laws passed by Congress, state legislatures and local government entities. If you don’t want SB 1070 enforced you should work for its repeal or contribute to help fund the lawsuits seeking to overturn the law.
I spent my young adulthood working in Harlem. No one could pay me enough to be a cop in the area I worked. I respect the commitment of officers who risk their lives every day trying to keep the rest of us safe. Of course, there are a few rotten apples (as there are in any large group of people,) but do not defame an entire group of people for the misguided (or illegal) actions of a few.
Maybe the police are tired of getting assaulted by so called peaceful demonstrations. When the actual facts come out the liberal press will be not reporting it. They will be off on another witch hunt reporting their agenda.
A note: I removed the first comment from this post because it had nothing to do with the topic at hand. If I had written about the Middle East, it would have been perfectly acceptable, but not on this post.
Interesting comments so far, including the ones that take me to task. I understand the pressure the police face every day and their duty to protect us while they don’t put themselves in more danger than necessary. But upping the ante in equipment, rolling military vehicles down our streets, carrying heavy duty weapons and wearing protective garb suitable for war zones is the wrong approach, just like busting people for minor offenses and giving them long prison sentences is not the way to make our country a safer, or a better, place. These tactics create greater distance between the police and the community and create resentment that breeds more problems down the road. The short term gains in apparent safety (for the rest of us) are overwhelmed by long term losses for all of us as, and a less just society.
Mr. Safier: The Militarization of our Society as a Quazi Military State to combat terrorism has EVERYTHING to do with our Middle East Foreign Policy!!!…remove your head from the sand!!!
Francis, your post was a diatribe about the Middle East. Unless I missed something, you didn’t make any direct connections with the topic of my post. You’re welcome to make the connection in a comment, but don’t expect your readers to find the connection on their own.
The combination of a failed “War on Drugs” and the aftermath of the 9/11 attack have both contributed to the militarization of the police in the U.S. The Defense Department, in coordination with the Homeland Security Department, has given vast amounts of modern military equipments to the police in all states. These include the MRAP’s (Mine-resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicles) that were developed for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. http://images.dailykos.com/images/99807/la…
These advanced weapons are almost completely unneeded for use by the police departments in this country. They are, however, readily deployed for any reason including peaceful and lawful demonstrations by citizens. Similarly, SWAT teams are also deployed for virtually any offenses except jaywalking.
Our country and its leaders, need to ramp down the unnecessary and excessive use of force by police, it is completely undemocratic and more suitable for a country like North Korea or Iran.
Mr. Safier: The conversion of our Society into a Quasi Military State following 911 was predicted and a direct consequence of our Middle East Foreign Policy formulated in the late 1940’s by President Truman. The connections in my original post were there but you chose not to see them.
They are as follows:
1. On November 26, 1947, James Forrestal, Secretary of Defense, stated to J. Howard Mc Grath, Senator from Rhode Island:
“…no group in this country should be permitted to influence our policy to the point it could endanger our national security.”(The Forrestal Diaries, 1951),
2. President Truman, himself had serious misgivings about such a state and initially opposed its’ creation:
“The creation of a Jewish state…would cause a third world war…The government of Palestine should be a government of the people irrespective of race, religion or color.”(Michael Cohen, Truman and Israel, 1990),
3. This view was reflected by non-Zionists Jews in this country who also feared the creation of a Theocracy (Jewish State) in the Palestine. In an editorial in the New York Times:
..”Many of us have long had doubts concerning the wisdom of erecting a political state on a basis of a religious faith”(quoted in The Forrestal Diaries, 1951)…”the decision is fraught with great danger for the future security of this country.”(The Forrestal Diaries, 1951),
4. Defense Secretary Forrestal: “..this matter…involved not merely the Arabs of the Middle East, but also..the whole Moslem world…it would be stupid to allow the situation to develop..to do permanent injury to our relations with the Moslem world or to the end in a stumble into war”(The Forrestal Diaries, 1951),
5. Lewis W. Douglas, US Ambassador in London: “…the consequences of the creation of the Israel state will flow for a long time”(The Forrestal Diaries, 1951), and
6. Rear Admirable Edmund T. Woolridge, Assistant Chief of Naval Operations: “United States prestige in the Middle East has suffered what may be irreparable damage….(The)Arabs are not bluffing. (The) Problem transcends the age-old conflict between the Jews and Arabs, and is world wide in its’ consequences.” (The Forrestal Diaries, 1951).
Safier ~
“But upping the ante in equipment, rolling military vehicles down our streets, carrying heavy duty weapons and wearing protective garb suitable for war zones is the wrong approach…”
Have you seen what has been going on? Do you realize how quickly demonstrations can escalate, or the potential for violence can be life threatening to law enforcement? If so, you might comprehend the need to be prepared for the worst in every potentially dangerous situation.
“We’ve turned into a fearful society. We’re frightened of one another, so we enact zero tolerance policies …”
Does Columbine, Newton, or the Boston Marathon ring any bells? Need we bring up 9/11?
It is a new day. If you want the peace ad tranquility of living with Ward and June on “Leave It To Beaver”, buy yourself the DVD box set.
But in the meantime, you might want to join the rest of us living in the reality of today’s modern world …
Francis Saitta: Your comment amounts to one anti-Semite quoting a few other anti-Semites to justify your desire to do away with Israel. You fail to mention any of the other aspects of US Middle East policy, i.e. our support of the Saudi oil princes, our action in replacing the democratically elected government of Iran with the Shah in the 1950s, and our support for King Hussein of Jordan who has killed far more Palestinians than Israel. It is clear that for you the only significant aspect of US Middle East policy is the support for Israel.The fact is that Israel exists…regardless of what Truman, Forrestal and the rest of these guys wrote during the Cold War. To imagine a world without Israel you need to have some idea what to do to or with the Jews who live there. Care to share where they all should go, or maybe Hitler’s Final Solution holds some appeal for you. After all, the leading Palestinian of the 1930s and early 1940s, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, spent WWII in Germany as a guest of his good buddy, Adolph Hitler.
And, once again, you completely fail to connect a single dot from your diatribe to the issue of whether or not the police ought to be more and more like paramilitary troops. The change under discussion is much more a consequence of the war against Islamic terror. Homeland Security…created after the murderous attacks on 9/11…is the prime funding source for all the heavy weaponry. And please do not even try and push the idea that it was US support for Israel that “forced” bin Laden’s crew to attack the US.
It is typical that ANY criticism of Israel is viewed by narrow minded, uninformed, individuals (such as yourself), unwilling to consider our Middle East Policy objectively, as anti Semitism ….BULL S__T!!!!
Raul – And would “rolling military vehicles down our streets, carrying heavy duty weapons and wearing protective garb suitable for war zones” have had any affect on the outcome of Columbine, Newton, Boston Marathon or 9/11? Nope, none, nada, zippo.
Ms. Marty: FYI!!!
By CBSNewsCBS/APMay 16, 2008, 4:40 AM
Al Qaeda’s media operation has released a new audio message on the Internet from Osama bin Laden, dealing primarily with Israel and the Palestinians on the 60th anniversary of Israel’s creation.
The message, downloaded by CBS News from the prominent jihadist Web forum El Ekhlas, did not include any new images of the al Qaeda chief.
The 9:40-minute audio by bin Laden showed an old photo of his face over a brown graphic and included the title, “A Message to the Peoples of the West: From Sheik Osama bin Laden,” with the subheading: “The Reasons for the Struggle on the 60th Anniversary of the Creation of the Occupation State of Israel.”
Bin Laden began his message by telling listeners that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has always been the primary cause for friction between the West and the Muslim world – a struggle which he said was getting more difficult due to European policies biased in Israel’s favor.
“The Palestinian cause has been the main factor that, since my early childhood, fueled my desire, and that of the 19 freemen (Sept. 11 bombers), to stand by the oppressed, and punish the oppressive Jews and their allies,” the al Qaeda chief said.
“We shall continue the fight, Allah willing, against the Israelis and their allies, in order to pursue justice for the oppressed, and we shall not give up one inch of Palestine, as long as there is still a single true Muslim alive.”
David, did you see that TUSD is adding more police to its high schools and middle schools (http://tucson.com/news/blogs/ednotes/artic…), at predominantly schools of color (Black, Brown, & Native)? There will be no SRO’s at Sabino or Sahuaro where the majority school demographic is White. HT said that this will make our schools “safer.” I say that this further criminalizes our youth. We do not need more police in our schools, what we need are transformative educators that facilitate “critical consciousness” so that we police our own schools and community. Given the history of TUSD, Tucson, and Arizona as a specific context relative to Raza community relation to the police, this move by TUSD is simply a continuation of the criminalization of our community. “Our youth” in particular already live in neighborhoods/barrios throughout Tucson where there is a heavy police and border patrol presence, a police state if you will.
The necessity of Police in TUSD Schools is a direct result of the failure of TUSD to implement:
ARS: 15-841. Responsibilities of pupils; expulsion; alternative education programs; community service; placement review committee
“… A teacher may remove a pupil from the classroom if either of the following conditions exists:
1. The teacher has documented that the pupil has repeatedly interfered with the teacher’s ability to communicate effectively with the other pupils in the classroom or with the ability of the other pupils to learn.
2. The teacher has determined that the pupil’s behavior is so unruly, disruptive or abusive that it seriously interferes with the teacher’s ability to communicate effectively with the other pupils in the classroom or with the ability of the other pupils to learn.
B. A pupil may be expelled for continued open defiance of authority, continued disruptive or disorderly behavior, violent behavior
Administrators have blocked teachers repeated attempts to remove chronically disruptive Students from the Classroom. There is NO effective check/consequences for their behavior….hence the necessity for a Police presence in the Schools.
If ARS 15-841 is implemented, and teachers are given the responsibility and authority the Law provides; if chronically disruptive Students are removed for the Classroom, even expelled if necessary, it will quickly became apparent to both Students and their Parents that there are Classroom Behavioral Standards that Students must follow. A Police presence will not be necessary to control Student Behavior.
Mr. Acre:
Maybe that’s where the crime and gangs are?
They are “criminalized” from an early start. Just look at the arrest rates and criminal rates of the hispanic community. So just who is causing this? Just who is oppressing them? The cops go where the crime is.
Francis – the reason why TUSD has TPD in schools is because of “white anxiety.” Most teachers and administrators are either frightened of Brown/Black youth and or are vehement racists and hate our kids. The majority of TUSD staff is culturally incompetent and cannot effectively engage students. Most teachers and administrators do not have the skill set necessary to develop healthy relationships with students. TUSD had an effective program in doing so, the Mexican American/Raza Studies Department. The elimination of this program is continuous with racism in Arizona schools, and so called the high-spanic apologists who perpetuate this criminalization of racism in our schools.
“criminalization and racism”
Sal B – schools produce inequality and oppress students of color. all you have to do is look at the research
Mr. Acre:
I sure hope that you are not employed in ANY school system. I challenge you to read the crime stats for Tucson. There are some FACTS and RESEARCH. Hispanics create crime way far above their population in Tucson. That number is 42%. The Anglos have voted with their feet. Their kids just don’t want to go to school with your kids. And they buy homes to stay away from you.
Go ahead and teach your MAS drivel. The human resources manager for major companies don’t give a flying F### if they had your MAS classes. They care about computer science, engineering, writing skills etc etc.
Pathetic.
Sal B – you got that anxiety that I mentioned above. I am employed by school systems all over the country, as a professional educational consultant, Pendejo. Disproportionate crime is a result of systemic racism that is perpetuated in the schools. Are you telling me something new that Whites do not want to live by Mexicans??? Computer science, engineering, medicine and highly developed analytical writing skills are all had by students who have gone through the former Chicana/o Studies classes. That is why folks like you were sure to eliminate it, too many smart Chicana/o kids that run circles around folks like you.
So those MAS students would only do well if they go through your program? So no hispanic students did well until you showed up? What arrogance.
“Systemic racism” what nonsense. Hispanic students make up 62% of TUSD population. So who is oppressing them. The Korean, Indian,Jewish kids sure don’t need any prompting to do well. It starts at home.
Hispanic students who wanted to do well didn’t need your class 70 years ago or 50 years ago. Tucson is filled with those people. I know I have worked with them. This may come as a shock and surprise to you but kids did well before you arrived.
And watch the news tonight. I will bet that you don’t see those Korean, Indian or Jewish kids on the nightly crime stories. They are too busy at home doing homework.
Sean arce
What is that word that you used “Pendejo”. Is that the MAS language that you teach? Me thinks that you are part of the problem NOT part of the solution.
Harlan – do you want the etymology of the word “Pendejo,” or a loose translated descriptor?
Harlan Thomas:
Mr. Arce just insulted me. Mexican profanity. That’s the level he is at. Guess that is what he teaches and what people pay him for.
Mr. Arce:
“I am employed by school systems all over the country, as a professional educational consultant”
A consultant is someone YOU pay to use YOUR watch to tell YOU what time it is! I have NO love for consultants of ANY kind as the use of these so-called professionals is an admission that you don’t know how to tell time!
I hadn’t been following the comment thread for a few days, so I didn’t chime in on the school police discussion. For me, it’s a tough one. As I wrote in the post, I deplore the use of police in schools when it leads to arrests of students for actions which should be taken care of in house. Putting people into the criminal justice system should be the last thing you do with youth, since it can have such a negative impact on their future. Schools should be places of learning, which includes learning from your mistakes. But I won’t take a hard line against some kind of presence in schools of people whose job it is to monitor dangerous or illegal activity. We had someone in the high school where I taught, which was mainly middle class Anglo. I didn’t feel it created a repressive atmosphere at the school, though I also felt uncomfortable having someone in the school wearing a uniform and (if I remember correctly) carrying a gun.
I’m not sure where to draw the line on this issue, and I don’t know how the SROs do their jobs in TUSD. It’s something the administration and the community need to watch over carefully.
Is everything now racism? It sure squelches the discussion.