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Trading Police For Soldiers: Has The Posse Comitatus Act Helped Militarize Our Police And Set The Stage For More Fergusons?, Arthur Rizer
Trading Police For Soldiers: Has The Posse Comitatus Act Helped Militarize Our Police And Set The Stage For More Fergusons?, Arthur Rizer
Arthur L. Rizer III
The recent protests, police overreaction, and subsequent riots in Ferguson, Missouri, demonstrated to Americans and to the world the true extent of the militarization of police in communities across the United States. Deployed throughout Ferguson, in preemption and then in response to protesters’ actions, were ranks of heavily armed, flak-jacketed, camouflage uniformed police standing atop and around armored personnel carriers with machine guns mounted. Such a response evidences that the line between police and soldiers in communities is blurring, if not blurred. This militarization is, in part, a result of a principle Americans have held dear since our founding, that …