Once immune to backlash, is trust in our military and police slipping?
West Point professor suggests that unchecked violence and the growing civ-mil disconnect may finally be taking its toll.
West Point professor suggests that unchecked violence and the growing civ-mil disconnect may finally be taking its toll.
As we look inwards to dismantle America’s legacy of racism, we must also recognize that racism and militarism abroad are mutually reinforcing.
Members of Congress have jumped to action in the wake of the mass protests against police brutality but most often it’s the local police forces that have been militarizing themselves.
The massive resources allocated to both local police and the U.S. military create supply side pressures to find, if not create, enemies.
Senior military officials were quick to call for change within their ranks. But change will neither be easy, nor quick.
The proposals for change offered by the president, and from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, will not be enough.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent comment about Canadians watching what’s happening in the US with “horror and consternation” should be a big wake up call.
The Times’ recent decision to publish an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton calling for the military to quash Black Lives Matter protests highlights a militaristic pipeline to the nation’s paper of record.
Trump unsurprisingly got some things wrong when he invoked the right to bear arms in his speech threatening to send the military to quell protests around the country.
You’re not wrong if you’re thinking that Trump’s handling of the protests across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder seems very familiar.
Americans seem rightly offended by their military being used to police their own neighborhoods, but they have also largely stood by as it has waged counterinsurgency in neighborhoods around the world.
Perhaps the most damaging effect of police militarization is that it pushes police officers engaging with the public to behave as they look, to act like soldiers dealing with enemy combatants.