Line troops NOT Military Police going through non-lethal crowd control training.
49 2014-06-14 by [deleted]
Today, one of my friends posted a video of my old troop going through OC pepper spray training. I was in the army as a Cavalry Scout (in urban combat pretty much a glorified infantryman) in an Armored Cavalry Regiment. I spent 3.5 years in active duty and we trained for urban combat in Iraq. We spent 14 months in Iraq and at no point did we EVER train for crowd/riot control or even come close to having to deal with large groups of people.
The reason I am posting this is because it is becoming very real to me about the militarization of America. Supposedly, we are supposed to be pulling out of the Middle East. All of a sudden, our military is being trained in non/less-lethal tactics and we have the training in place for urban combat on every military base in the country. I do not know where else we would send our military that would require that type of training.
I would rather not speak too much about the source of this, but it has also come to my attention that a fairly high ranking member of the police in my area has been informed to expect mass public demonstrations/riots in the very near future (2016 or before).
Are all of these unwarranted concerns or am I actually becoming more aware of the very real danger of our government training to combat the people.
16 comments
11 bandy0154 2014-06-14
The mass demonstrations are coming, because we can only take so much before people decide in mass to say enough in the only way we know how.
I hope our military will be on the side of the people when the time comes.
11 Superman750 2014-06-14
I truly hope so too.
1 Zenof 2014-06-14
I hope so to, but sadly I think they are going to pop it off when they are in Russia
7 JohnReggae 2014-06-14
Fellow ex-19D here. I joined in 1996, and, same as you, there was zero emphasis on crowd control. Just a smattering of training on urban combat from a fighting vehicle perspective.
Thanks for the post, OP. The sweeping trend of militarized polizei and unrest-oriented military needs all the publicity possible. I have been reading about this since 2006 and before, with some early DemocracyNow! articles, along with other sources. The "cop-as-soldier" model is entirely disturbing; but, as far as empires go, not entirely unsuspected.
It seems to be a fairly natural trajectory: as the empire grows bigger and continually more ossified, large-scale internal strife seems inevitable, and the empire seeks to preserve its own existence and self-betterment. Still, it doesn't make it any less frightening or fucked up.
Edit: punctuation.
3 anticonventionalwisd 2014-06-14
Yay articulate and well reasoned comments. Have to also factor in, though, the unprecedented technological capacities of control.
6 villke 2014-06-14
Probably USA goverment is going to make some extremely unpopular decision and they expect large scale riots.
3 Superman750 2014-06-14
That's exactly along the lines of what I am thinking.
4 Catatafish 2014-06-14
Getting ready for the collapse...
3 [deleted] 2014-06-14
Makes me think of the fall of Rome. No army had ever been allowed into the city of Rome... Until one day they were. After that, the General with the biggest army would suddenly claim to be the emperor. Chaos ensued, Rome fell, darkness for a thousand years.
Can see the same thing happening to the U.S. once posse comitatis is done away with.
2 Superman750 2014-06-14
I most definitely can.
1 anticonventionalwisd 2014-06-14
Be wary of the man on the white horse promising a solution to the manufactured crisis/implosion. Remember the coup attempt of 1933.
2 my_newz_account 2014-06-14
I want to hear a cops perspective of the militarization of their job. Are they gladly accepting it or are there people inside the organizations questioning these actions?
2 [deleted] 2014-06-14
http://www.prisonexp.org/
Might help explain it.
2 [deleted] 2014-06-14
Could just be training for the next Iraqistan.
If you've got some time, there's a ~1.5 hour presentation from an American military geostrategist that may provide some context: The Pentagon's New Map
It's an alternate grand strategic vision for the US which came out of an office Rumsfeld put together after 9/11. We had a military designed for beating up other militaries in a post-Soviet world and didn't know what a post-9/11 world demanded. This presentation is what they came up with.
One key plank is that the military needs to get better at handling civilian populations.
1 archonemis 2014-06-14
Stop paying these people to pepper spray you.
Stop paying tribute [Federal Income Tax] and make it a goal to use a currency other than the USD.
They can't pay their mercenaries if we're not funding them.
1 PathOfLightPOL 2014-06-14
Food is on the shelf.
Gas is still affordable (until Baghdad falls and then probably Kuwait).
The cell phones are still working and taking selfies.
Tweets are still tweeting.
The porn is still being fapped to.
Facebook is still liking pictures of lunches.
Reddit is still upboating cats.
The television is still selling to consumers.
Life is good right now.
I personally think the happening will be forced. Gun control all the way.
An attempt to pass a mandatory federal firearm background check on all firearm sales. De facto federal firearm registration before the confiscations.
The civil unrest would come if they attempted to pass/enforce a federal firearm background check on all private sales of firearms.
That is my personal belief and what I am personally preparing and training for.
Then again damn near anything could set it off. A huge mass wave of immigrants rushing the border at once (say in the millions).
An outbreak or dangerous infection that has a high fatality rate.
A natural disaster of large enough magnitude.
Racial divide (black/white mostly).
But like I said I personally think the war will be between those with guns and those without guns who want to order statism enforcement agents to remove through force the guns of the civilians.