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Title: US Crime is at Historical Lows, Yet Police are Militarized and Prepping for War — Here’s Why
Source:
Free Thought Project
URL Source: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cr ... on-police/#BmGELSTKq8IOu5FF.99
Published: Aug 1, 2016
Author: Claire Bernish
Post Date: 2016-08-01 12:51:16 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 726
Comments: 8
When a country wages military campaigns on a scale not fully disclosed to the public to feed the coffers of war profiteers, it cannot possibly be surprising when that militarism — so infused in the political propaganda masking it as national security — eventually comes home. Thus in 2016 — as the rule of the longest wartime president in U.S. history, Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama — draws to a close, it must be equally unsurprising the brief and altogether impotent attempt to demilitarize America’s police forces might soon be repealed. However, the State’s continued proselytizing on the need for domestic security and citizen safety proffered as the reason for remilitarization only beclouds what, in actuality, has been a steady downward trend in both violent crime and acts of terrorism. As with any governmental propaganda, it’s imperative to cut through fictitious, nebulous fearmongering so the public can protest further curtailment of basic rights from a reasoned platform of fact. For decades, police officers had been tasked with protecting the public they served from violent crime and property thieves. And, to a large extent, the image of Officer Friendly remains so ingrained in the collective consciousness, large segments of the populace perform logical gymnastics in order to defend even the most egregious brutality by cops — instead of questioning the gradual apparent erasure of constitutional due process. But as politicians and a growing number of prominent, if controversial, heads of law enforcement pontificate on the need for officer and civilian safety to fully reinstate the military’s handout of surplus equipment to departments nationwide, someone needs to slam on the brakes and ask: Are we really in that much danger? In short, the answer is a resounding No. According to combined data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the FBI, since 1950, the homicide rate per 100,000 people reached a high point of 10.2 back in 1980, and then gradually declined until 1990, when it again rose to 9.4, peaked again the following year at 9.8, fluctuated briefly, and fell more or less continuously ever since. Indeed, the spike in the homicide rate in the early 1990s gave rise to the now-notorious Clinton crime bill of 1994 — a move that crammed both government and for-profit prisons with nonviolent criminals via mandatory minimums and other controversial provisions, it arguably birthed our modern police state. Though many legislators and advocates now decry the bill as horribly flawed, it nevertheless facilitated the militarization of police following the attacks of September 11, 2001. And as any historian, academic, or watchdog organization will tell you, it’s exponentially more difficult to reverse an erosion of rights concordant with government given too much power and control. So, although the homicide rate plummeted in 2014, the latest year for available statistics, to just 4.5 per 100,000 people — the lowest rate since 4.6 in 1963 — the narrative that militarized, aggressive policing is necessary for public safety has so beset the American mind frame as to be an irreversible reality. ‘What about terrorism?’ many might ask. ‘Aren’t terrorists a real threat?’ Again, despite ever-present paranoia from politicians and their corporate media mouthpieces, the short answer is No. While there has been a noticeable uptick in recent years in terrorism perpetrated in Western nations — such attacks elsewhere as well as the causes of terrorism would be better left to a separate article — terror attacks have been nowhere near as deadly as the 1970s and 1980s. In no way is this meant to excuse terrorist acts or discount the deaths of any innocents, anywhere — but for the purposes of illustrating relative safety, those figures do not lie. But what the homicide and terrorism data prove instead, when taken with increasingly militaristic and overly-aggressive policing, is the normalization of what John W. Whitehead in Battlefield America terms the police-industrial complex. We are witnessing the outgrowth of American military empire run amok and come home to roost, and its ever-present propaganda meant to validate its very existence. If the atmosphere domestically feels more dangerous than ever before, in other words, it’s by design — not because any greater threat looms over us than any time previously. As American imperialism and domination circles the drain, the State realizes discontent and dissidence could realistically lead to a growth in insurgent acts by its citizens — up to, and possibly including, full-on insurrection. So, while the government constantly proffers legislation and other means to severely diminish rights for the comfort of illusory security, the only rational response is resistance, scrutiny, vigilance — and above all, to employ cold facts against what it hopes will be an emotional reaction to altogether needless fears. 
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#1. To: Deckard (#0)
Could it be that the heavy hand of police militarism is what has driven down the crime rate? Just a thought.
That's what the author concludes: "Indeed, the spike in the homicide rate in the early 1990s gave rise to the now-notorious Clinton crime bill of 1994 — a move that crammed both government and for-profit prisons with nonviolent criminals via mandatory minimums and other controversial provisions, it arguably birthed our modern police state."
Prepping for War --
Just a thought. Think again... Bread and circuses (the welfare system) have kept the crime rate low. (Backed up by more guns) We're finally learning how to control the great unwashed. -- Now we need to work on the crazies.
Im sorry but crime is not at an all time low! Only stupid people could buy bs like that. I have been burglarized so many times that it would be cheap to defend myself in court for manslaughter than to keep getting burglarized! When we grew up hardly anyone was robbed or assaulted. Nowadays you are more likely to get robbed than have someone wave hi to you driving down the street. If I had one major complaint about the police its that they really do not give a shit about burglaries. At least get and process finger prints! Maybe I have been watching too many CSI shows? I did not tell anyone but I got burglarized again last week at work.
Solution: move.
Solution: move. " Very good advice. I hope he can do it. Si vis pacem, para bellum Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. if you look around, we have gone so far down the the rat hole, the almighty is going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah, if we don't have a judgement come down on us. President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. --Clint Eastwood "I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within." -- General Douglas MacArthur
I have been thinking about it but that would mean selling my business which at the moment doesn't seem to be a bad option! When New Orleans was "cleansed by God" all the rats left and progressive leaders wanted to show how good they were by selling out their people and brought the rats here. Between the NO rats, the shitcago rats and south of the border rats we have had a decade of crime that we have never had before. I think the NO rats must be related to the Shitcago rats because they came about the same time? Between the methheads and career criminals America has no chance to make it. No matter where I move its going to be the same in time. Obama gave America no hope to survive!
However, the State’s continued proselytizing on the need for domestic security and citizen safety proffered as the reason for remilitarization only beclouds what, in actuality, has been a steady downward trend in both violent crime and acts of terrorism.
#2. To: Vicomte13 (#1)
"Could it be that the heavy hand of police militarism is what has driven down the crime rate?"
#3. To: Deckard (#0)
US Crime is at Historical Lows, Yet Police are Militarized and Prepping for War--
On us!
#4. To: Vicomte13, Y'ALL (#1)
Could it be that the heavy hand of police militarism is what has driven down the crime rate?
#5. To: Deckard (#0)
#6. To: Justified (#5)
I have been burglarized so many times that it would be cheap to defend myself in court for manslaughter than to keep getting burglarized!
#7. To: buckeroo, Justified (#6)
" I have been burglarized so many times that it would be cheap to defend myself in court for manslaughter than to keep getting burglarized!
#8. To: buckeroo (#6)
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