The militarization of the Police State continues on to new levels this week as the U.S. military begins joint excercises along with the LAPD in Los Angeles this week. According to local CBS news coverage,
“The exercises are designed to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements, police said.”
I think the main concern here should be the phrase “operate in urban environments”. With the recent passage of the NDAA, the “War on Terror” has effectively been extended to the homeland of the United States, effectively nullifying the Posse Comitatus Act, which was enacted to prevent the government from using the military to enforce the laws of the land. Section 1021 of the NDAA even allows the military to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge and without a lawyer for merely being ‘suspected’ of being affiliated with terrrorism. With the government’s constantly expanding it’s definition of “terrorist” to include such dangerous folks as Ron Paul supporters and people who stock up on food, along with several American cities calling for martial law to quell rising crime, this is certainly a dangerous stew we are brewing.
To my knowledge this is the first time the military and local police of a major American city have gotten together to conduct excercises like this. The idea that the military and local police deem it necessary to prepare to “operate in urban environments” should send chills down the spines of those who have studied history. What may be a minor convenience for the citizens of Los Angeles today as they have to reroute around these excercises could quickly become a full-on assault on our civil rights and the Constitution tomorrow.
Nobody here wants to believe the military would actually be used against citizens of the United States on our own soil. Heck, maybe they are preparing for a real-life “Battle Of Los Angeles” and it’s all for our own good. Unfortunately, my gut feeling is that the reality of these excercises is more in line with the tagline of the recent Hollywood B-Movie by the same name, and that “They Don’t Come In Peace”
