"Oklahomacitybombing-DF-ST-98-01356" by Staff Sergeant Preston Chasteen - DefenseImagery.mil (F-3203-SPT-95-000023-XX-0198). Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Twenty years ago today, Oklahoma City was ripped apart in
the early morning by a homegrown terrorist. He killed 168 people and injured
hundreds. Terrorism, by definition, has to have a political dimension. McVeigh
was upset over the 1992 FBI standoff at Ruby Ridge and the 1993 Waco Siege
and decided that bombing a federal building was the best response. They targeted the
federal building in Oklahoma because it would have the least “civilian” causalities.
This caused a change in the FBI’s priorities when a shocked
nation asked “Why? How did you not know?” The FBI began investigating domestic
terrorism focusing on the dangers of the extreme right. Then came 9/11 and a
shift to radical Islam, ignoring the far right. According to the ADL, right
wing extremists are responsible
for 120 different attacks or attempted attacks between 1995 and 2014.
Both 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing led to increased
domestic policing power. Many articles
have come out lately linking the increased militarization of American police to
the increased public awareness of violence against blacks. As cited in the ACLU’s
“War Comes Home” report, “Police militarization has been defined as ‘the
process whereby civilian police increasingly draw from, and pattern themselves
around, the tenets of militarism and the military model.’” Many of these large
purchases have come from federal funds and driven by a surplus of military
equipment. Some programs to mention are: Department of
Defense’s 1033
Program, the Department
of Homeland Security’s grants to local law enforcement agencies, and the
Department of Justice’s Edward Byrne
Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program and these are fully
investigated in the ACLU’s report, all of which have little oversight besides a
simple request to a state coordinator.
A further example is the MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle. It looks like this:
These are the same type of vehicles that the US military
uses in Iraq and Afghanistan. And police in America say they need them for “public
safety.” These vehicles have been used in protests/riots in Ferguson, MO to parades
where Santa throws candy from the vehicles. “Those vehicles have been used to
transport citizens, officers and equipment when the roads are closed due to
snow, flooding and severe weather,” Andy Skoogman of the Minnesota Chiefs of
Police Association said.
The use of vehicles of war coincides with the increased use
of SWAT teams, as documented by the ACLU’s report, to serve search warrants
rather than respond to emergency situations such as hostage situations. In a
country where there are more guns than people, the police are right to be
cautious that every encounter could turn deadly for them, but does Florida
really need
“7 mine-resistant vehicles, 36 grenade launchers and more than 7,540 rifles”
or Tennessee “31 mine-resistant vehicles
and seven grenade launchers”?
This is the question
asked by the White House recently. While the report did make the point that
most of the “military equipment” that is transferred from feds to locals is
routine office stuff, it also came up with a series of recommendations to its
various departments to increase oversight. Further, Obama asked his
administration to develop an executive order due to him this month containing
concrete reforms.
The increasing militarization of domestic police forces is
something that every American should be interested in, for both domestic and foreign
policies. When the US is advising other countries, or condemning them, on their
use of “excessive” domestic force- critics will be able to use the oft abused
phrase when relating to America- hypocrite- if policies are reformed.
"Oklahoma City memorial" by Oklahoma_City_memorial.png: Mark Pellegrini derivative work: Diliff (talk) - Oklahoma_City_memorial.png. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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