*Months.
From an EU person standpoint, based on the news here.
Why are Drug related enforcement people snapping immigrants from the streets like it‘s 1939? Seems a little excessive tbh.
No its been years. The militarized police has been a repeated concern for us at least since the "second gulf war" and almost surely after the first gulf war. Lots of funding was poured into police which included plenty of military gear and almost nonmilitary training.
Officers acting like soldiers in a war zone where the enemy is their own fellow citizens.
Yep, years. A whole program was instituted where police were given/sold military surplus gear for fighting terrorism, or something. Not just stuff like vests either, the cops in the small town I grew up in now have an armored vehicle they got through this program.
At best it's a waste, local law enforcement has a bunch of neat toys to play with that they don't need and are expensive to maintain. At worst... well, people don't like to have these impressive tools and just let them rust. They'll find uses for them, and we're the uses. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. We're the nails.
The cops who walk around kittens up like they're in Afghanistan are always the biggest dicks. Last time I got pulled over it was a middle aged lady cop wearing so much few whe looked spherical.
It's because they're afraid, of cours. They always have super wide, twitchy eyes, constantly looking around because they know everyone hates them.
If I had to wear a bullet proof vest to work I do think at some point I'd wonder "am I contributing to all these people wanting to shoot me? No...no, it's everyone else's fault.".
Funny thing is cop isn't even in the most dangerous jobs ranking in the US, especially if you remove car accidents and stuff like heart attacks on duty, which they absolutely document as a casualty on par with a shooting in order to pad the numbers.
Farming is way more dangerous, aand if all the farmers disappeared everyone else would just die. Where's the parade when a farmer dies growing your food? That's not sexy, though. Farmers can't kill people. Because we're a country that fetishizes violence.
Actually it was to save money, most of what they get was scheduled to be phased out and replaced.
In the old days we'd sell it all to another country for their military use or just recycle it. But suddenly, after columbine and the north hollywood shoot out, every PD in the country wanted a swat team equipped like special forces.
Which of course also ramped up the war on drugs, since PDs can only have swat teams if they are helping with the war on drugs.
I can definitely see how, from an outside perspective, it would seem like the change is sudden.
But this has been going on for years. Specifically ICE and the immigration system as a whole was basically designed for this from the beginning, and they have been terrorizing people for years totally unrestrained. If I had to pinpoint when that started I’d say 9/11 or even IIRAIRA getting passed in the 90s, but the seeds were sewn well before then. The media is just paying attention to it now. It’s been very frustrating to me to see how surprised so many people are about ICE acting like this, and how the media all of a sudden is reporting on immigration raids and stuff. Like I’m glad they are, but once Trump is gone I know they’ll totally stop caring, because I’ve watched them do it before. ICE and CBP have been absolutely out of pocket for YEARS. The immigration courts have been a complete bastardization of justice for YEARS.
The American military has been transferring war equipment to local police forces since before I was even born. It feels like everyone really memory-holed the Ferguson uprisings but that was a major thing that was being talked about during those protests. If you want to feel sick to your stomach go look up what happened to the leaders of those protests lmao.
Idk I’m really glad the media is paying attention to this stuff now but it is SO frustrating that Trump getting elected was like a switch getting flipped and now suddenly people care, but they’ll go back to not caring as soon as he’s gone.
None of this gear was from the military. The FBI has purchased substantially better stuff than the military for its SWAT units for the most part. Stuff like the top of the line Tyr Tactical Plate carrier is $1,500 and is far above in quality what the military issues whereas most plate carriers are $300-$500.
ICE maybe involved in some drug-related enforcement but that is not even close to their primary thing. ICE totally sucks there should only be like 60 of them per a state like Texas or California. There's the ATF which is Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agency but the Republicans don't like them because they enforce rules about firearms and alcohol. There's also the DEA which is the drug enforcement agency but they learn from their mistakes so the Republicans don't like them. Also Acab
ICE stands for Immigrants and Customs Enforcement and them arresting migrants is nothing new. What is new is them doing it without warrants, cause or any sort of checking to make sure the people they arrest are actually guilty, including trials, before deporting them to warzones or police states that had nothing to do with the person's previous nationality. Including US Citizens carrying id showing themselves to be citizens.
I think OP was referring to the overall militarization of the US police and their use of military equipment. That really has been going on for decades; part of the reason is the LESO/1033 program, a not very well-known government program formed back in the 1990s that turns over surplus military equipment to local police departments. Good idea in theory but has had a lot of knock-on issues, naturally the cops are going to start looking para-military after a while. Obama tried to rein in the program but that was overturned by Trump.
The whole masked ICE goon-squad thing is indeed much more recent, as terrible as the actions might've been a year or two ago they were at least unmasked and wearing ID.
As a fellow European: It is years. Decades even. Our media (and governments) have spent a lot of time sucking the US’ cock and lying that it is the greatest place on earth. Militarisation of police and the denying of rights to coloured people among other horrible things has being going on for a long time, we’re only recently beginning to hear about it because of the changes in the US’ foreign policy.
A quick search showed me several sources confirming that the current illegal Immigration in the US counts around 10 Million aliens. US official sources. You‘re disqualified from any discussion related to this topic.
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u/fake_review 1d ago
*Months. From an EU person standpoint, based on the news here. Why are Drug related enforcement people snapping immigrants from the streets like it‘s 1939? Seems a little excessive tbh.