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Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014

Homeland Security Was Built to Fend Off Terrorists. Why’s it So Busy Arming Cops to Fight Average Americans?

Author:     TREVOR TIMM
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Tuesday 2 September 2014 06.45 EDT
 Link: Homeland Security Was Built to Fend Off Terrorists. Why’s it So Busy Arming Cops to Fight Average Americans?
Stephan:   Here is a prominent and respected British newspaper's take on the American police state. If you travel outside the U.S. you know that the respect and admiration in which America was once held has largely dissipated like a morning mist. Now our international image is quite unpleasant and negative. Sophisticated people in other countries at dinner parties or other private events ask you, "What happened to the United States?" I am never quite sure how to answer.
Want the federal government to reign in the local police? Follow the money. Photo illustration: DonkeyHotey / Flickr via Creative Commons

Want the federal government to reign in the local police? Follow the money. Photo illustration: DonkeyHotey / Flickr via Creative Commons

For three weeks and counting, America has raged against the appalling behavior of the local police in Ferguson, Missouri, and for good reason: automatic rifles pointed at protesters, tank-like armored trucks blocking marches, the teargassing and arresting of reporters, tactics unfit even for war zones – it was all enough to make you wonder whether this was America at all. But as Congress returns to Washington this week, the ire of a nation should also be focused on the federal government agency that has enabled the rise of military police, and so much more: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The 240,000-employee, Bush-invented bureaucratic behemoth that didn’t even exist 15 years ago has been the primary arms dealer for out-of-control local cops in Ferguson and beyond, handing out tens of billions of dollars in grants for military […]

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