Does killing leaders of violent organizations make any difference ? Scholars are doubtful.
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/world/middleeast/syria-killing-terrorist-leaders.html #GWOT #COIN
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“Signature strikes, a key aspect for years of what the administration likes to call its “targeted killing” program, permit the #CIA and #JSOC to kill without requiring them to know who they kill”
“Terrorist behavior – in practice, a gathering of men, teenaged to middle-aged, traveling in convoys or carrying weapons. In 2012, an unnamed senior official memorably quipped that the CIA considers “three guys doing jumping jacks” a signature of terrorist training”
▻http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/25/us-drone-program-secrecy-scrutiny-signature-strikes
#Obama #USA #signature_strikes #targeted_killing #drones #afpak #Afghanistan #Pakistan #Yemen #GWOT -
War Gear Flows to Police Departments (juin 2014)
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police-departments.htmlDuring the Obama administration, according to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.
The equipment has been added to the armories of police departments that already look and act like military units. Police SWAT teams are now deployed tens of thousands of times each year, increasingly for routine jobs. Masked, heavily armed police officers in Louisiana raided a nightclub in 2006 as part of a liquor inspection. In Florida in 2010, officers in SWAT gear and with guns drawn carried out raids on barbershops that mostly led only to charges of “barbering without a license.”
Etats-Unis : Des brindilles et des faisceaux - Badia Benjelloun
▻http://www.ism-france.org/analyses/Des-brindilles-et-des-faisceaux-article-18942Depuis que les Us(a) ont baissé le niveau d’intervention de leurs forces armées combattantes terrestres de par le monde, la surproduction guette un segment du secteur de l’armement. Des hélicoptères, des MRAPs (les fameux Humvee transformés par les Israéliens pour servir en Irak), du matériel de vision nocturne, des mitraillettes, des véhicules de combat légers et autre quincaillerie équipent maintenant les polices départementales.
Une petite ville de 25.000 habitants comme celle de Neenah, dans le Wisconsin, a le plus faible taux de criminalité des Us(a) et n’a pas connu d’homicide depuis plus de 5 ans. Sa police dispose néanmoins d’armement de guerre et elle se doit d’entraîner ses éléments à leur maniement.
Au passage, je signale le compte Twitter des « graphiques du New York times » :
▻https://twitter.com/nytgraphics-
Et pas que le matériel - j’émet l’hypothèse que l’afflux de vétérans de la #GWOT dans les forces de police contribue à en faire dériver la culture du maintien de l’ordre vers une culture militaire.
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Nan, pour l’instant ce n’est qu’une impression diffuse - je chercherai. Par contre j’aime bien cette remarque trouvée dans un article (▻http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_23886231/from-military-police-force-natural-transition) sur la transition de carrière de l’armée à la police: "many people who have gone to combat for any amount of time have got some stuff that they need to work on" - voilà, c’est une bonne partie du problème.
Un cas de recrutement pour illustrer: ▻http://patch.com/new-jersey/lacey/new-lacey-police-hires-are-all-combat-veterans
La police du Michigan cible spécifiquement les vétérans pour son recrutement: ▻http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/02/21/michigan-state-police-veterans-a-good-fit
Les vétérans reconvertis dans la police sont ravis d’avoir des MRAP: ▻http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/07/robert-farago/annals-police-militarization-cops-get-bad-reps-mraps - ce cas à Pocatello en Idaho me touche particulièrement parce que je connais cette petite ville de l’Idaho profond et franchement j’ai du mal à comprendre ce qu’on peut y faire avec un MRAP... Certes ça peut servir pour approcher un forcené retranché, mais ce n’est pas à ça qu’il est destiné - les policiers locaux précisent que ce n’est pour eux pas un véhicule de forces d’intervention: “This is not just a SWAT ride. What we want to do is get everybody patrol-trained” - c’est vraiment une généralisation de la conception militaire de la patrouille.
Cet article approfondit bigrement la question - ▻http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/coming-home-to-roost.html
A propos de l’Iraq: "Considering the savagery that accompanies such an environment, it is not difficult to see how undervalued human life becomes" - on peut imaginer les conséquence sur l’approche du métier de policier.
Et j’y trouve le genre d’analyse que je cherchais:
" Police training mimics military training, both physically and mentally. Transition programs that funnel soldiers to police forces have become common at all levels of government. The changing face of law enforcement is indicative of this process as forces that are traditionally advertised to “protect and serve” have become noticeably militaristic. Perhaps even more concerning is the fact that soldiers, many of whom carry the mental baggage of war, are being streamlined from the streets of Fallujah to the city blocks of the US.
In a recent article for “Police: The Law Enforcement Magazine,” Mark Clark tells us that military veterans seeking employment in police ranks “is happening right now in numbers unseen since the closing days of the Vietnam War.” To assist with job placement and transitioning, organizations like “Hire Heroes USA” works with “about 100 veterans each week” - at least 20% of whom are seeking law enforcement jobs. Law enforcement agencies like the Philadelphia Police Department and San Jose PD, which boast of being structured as “a paramilitary organization,” actively seek military veterans by awarding preferential treatment. Many police departments across the country have added increased incentives and benefits, including the acceptance of military active duty time towards retirement, to acquire veterans.
An October 2013 edition of the Army Times reports that “more than seven in 10 (local law enforcement agencies) said they attend military-specific job fairs, and three quarters reported developing relationships with the Labor Department’s local veterans employment representatives.” Also, “Half said they work with military transition assistance programs, and half also said they develop relationships with local National Guard and reserve units”. Most local departments also have some type of veterans hiring preference, and “more than 90 percent reported having at least one vet in a senior leadership position.”
An example of this trend can be found in Hillsborough County, Florida, where the Sheriff’s department is seeking to hire “200 law enforcement deputies and another 130 detention deputies,” and Major Alan Hill has set his sights on veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan to fill these roles. Ironically, Hill points to “coping skills” as a main reason. “A lot of them know how to operate under stress. All of them know how to take orders,” Hill said. “We want to get the best of the best, and bring them in here, and give them a home, and allow them to continue to serve”. Other departments across the country - such as the City of Austin Police Department and the Webb County Sheriff’s Office, both in Texas; the Denver Police Department in Colorado; the Hillsborough County and Orange County sheriff’s offices in Florida; and the Tucson Police Department in Arizona - have initiated similar efforts.
The correlation between the mental baggage of war, the increased hiring of military combat veterans as police officers, and an observable escalation of aggressive and violent police brutality is difficult to ignore. Police departments have screening processes, but many are lacking. The lingering effects from being in a war zone are unquestionable, and signs and symptoms which often are suppressed during “downtimes” tend to surface and intensify under distress - a common occurrence for police officers."
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OK, this militarization thing has gone too far
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Turning Policemen Into Soldiers, the Culmination of a Long Trend
The images from Missouri of stormtrooper-looking police confronting their citizens naturally raises the question: how the hell did we get to this point? When did the normal cops become Navy SEALs? What country is this, anyway?
▻http://m.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/08/turning-policemen-into-soldiers-the-culmination-of-a-long-trend/376052
#Livre
Rise of the Warrior Cop, by Radley Balko.: -
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The Economics of Police Militarism
Two crucial battles broke out in Ferguson, Missouri, this week. The first began with the public airing of sorrow and rage after the death of the eighteen-year-old Michael Brown, who was shot by a police officer, on Canfield Court, in the St. Louis suburb, at 2:15 P.M. last Saturday. Then came the local law enforcement’s rejoinder to the early round of protests. Officers rolled in with a fleet of armored vehicles, sniper rifles, and tear-gas cannisters, reinserting the phrase “the militarization of policing” into the collective conscience. The tactical missteps by the town’s police leadership have been a thing to behold. (They’re also to be expected; anyone doubting as much should pick up Radley Balko’s “The Rise of the Warrior Cop.”)
▻http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/economics-police-militarism -
How to End Militarized Policing
In the last week, the ACLU, Color of Change and even libertarian Senator Rand Paul have demanded that militarized policing in the United States be dialed back. While it is essential that major reductions in the high-tech military presence of police be enacted, real changes in the way communities of color are policed require much deeper shifts in the core mission and function of American police.
▻http://www.thenation.com/article/181307/how-end-militarized-policing
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