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At Asia Times, Peter van Buren is not optimistic about happenings in the US, anticipating a security dystopia

Even before the Manning trial began, the emerging look of that new America was coming into view. In recent years, weapons, tactics, and techniques developed in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in the war on terror have begun arriving in “the homeland”.

Consider, for instance, the rise of the warrior cop, of increasingly armored-up police departments across the country often filled with former military personnel encouraged to use the sort of rough tactics they once wielded in combat zones. Supporting them are the kinds of weaponry that once would have been inconceivable in police departments, including armored vehicles, typically bought with Department of Homeland Security grants.

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2 comments

  1. George Smith

    August 6, 2013 at 5:06 pm

    It’s American mega-business turning the national security industry loose on Americans. It’s capital resources trump everything. When you have the money to plant stories, create entire national mythologies and reward well those who do it, you can easily justify the waging of a quiet war on everyone. 

     
  2. Frank

    August 6, 2013 at 10:21 pm

    I think it’s telling that, in cop shows now, the predominant way to enter a suspect’s home seems to be in full SWAT gear with a battering ram.  

     

    I’m not saying that these shows reflect reality any more than did Hawaiian Eye or 77 Sunset Strip in their day, but they both portray and shape the public mythos.

     

    And, of course, in cop shows, it’s always the right suspect, yet another fiction.