"To Protect and Serve" used to mean something "helpful" was implied regarding the relationship between Police Officers and their Citizens.
These days with all the Excessive Deadly Force being use by Police Officers on their Citizens -- it may be time to re-evaluate what their "public service" mission really is?
It seems like semi-ancient history, but the co-ordinated infringement of our basic American Rights, during the Occupy Wall Street protest-movement, should have 'opened our eyes' -- that the old mission had shifted.
All when no one was looking apparently, too ...
11 chilling facts about America’s militarized police force
The war on terror has come home -- and it's wreaking havoc on innocent American lives
by Alex Kane, AlterNet; salon.com -- Jul 4, 2014
[...]
In June, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought more attention to police militarization when it issued a comprehensive, nearly 100-page (appendix and endnotes included) report titled, “War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing.” Based on public records requests to more than 260 law enforcement agencies in 26 states, the ACLU concluded that “American policing has become excessively militarized through the use of weapons and tactics designed for the battlefield” and that this militarization “unfairly impacts people of color and undermines individual liberties, and it has been allowed to happen in the absence of any meaningful public discussion.”
[...]
Here are 11 important–and horrifying–things you should know about the militarization of police.
1. It harms, and sometimes kills, innocent people. [...]
3. The use of SWAT teams is unnecessary. [...]
4. The “war on terror” is fueling militarization. It was the “war on drugs” that introduced militarized policing to the U.S. But the “war on terror” has accelerated it.
A growing number of agencies have taken advantage of the Department of Defense’s “1033” program, which is passed every year as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, the budget for the Pentagon. [...]
The other "8 things" are equally, if not more, disturbing. I encourage you to click. To become an informed citizen; to raise the 'public debate' when the occasion warrants it.
Here are a few more "startling things" from that recently compiled ACLU report, on this "moving of the goalposts" topic.
The use of "DHS funds" to excessively arm local police forces, should re-open our eyes again to their subtly, and not so subtly, on-going shifting missions ...
WAR COMES HOME
The Excessive Militarization of American Policing
2014 ACLU Foundation
[pg 25]
Mission Creep
It is clear that local law enforcement agencies use DHS funds ostensibly obtained for the purpose of fighting terrorism to conduct ordinary law enforcement activities. In New Hampshire, for example, three police departments -- in Concord, Keene, and Manchester (cities that are separated from each other by approximately 30 miles) -- each used DHS grants to fund the purchase of an armored BearCat (the amount of grants received by these agencies ranged from $215,000 to $286,000). Justifications offered for these grants included prevention, protection, response, and recovery activities pertaining to weapons of mass destruction and the threat of terrorism. [...]
[pg 26]
It is equally clear that the DOJ’s Byrne JAG funding is being used to conduct unnecessarily aggressive activities in drug cases. Approximately 21 percent of all law enforcement JAG funds go to task forces, the majority of which are drug task forces, which routinely employ paramilitary tactics in drug investigations.[70] Byrne JAG drug task forces have been widely criticized for incentivizing unnecessarily aggressive, often militarized, tactics -- particularly in communities of color.[71] As of 2011, 585 multi-jurisdictional task forces were funded through the JAG program.[72] JAG funds often support drug task forces by paying for the salaries or overtime hours of task force officers as well as for vehicles and equipment; in 2012-2013, more than 680,000 law enforcement overtime hours were paid for using JAG funds.[73] According to documents uncovered by the ACLU, local law enforcement agencies often received substantial funding from the DHS and DOJ during the time period studied.
The city of Austin, Texas, for example, received $2.2 million in federal grant funding from August 2010 through January 2012. Fort Worth, Texas, received $1.2 million in 2011 and 2012 combined. Similarly, since August 2013, the Salt Lake City Police Department has received almost $2 million in federal grant awards. However, awards are not limited to large cities. [...]
Simply put, American policing has become excessively militarized.
[...]
And about the DoD Funding program mentioned in the intro article, here is some of what that is about:
DoD empowering the LEAs ...
The 1033 Program
justnet.org
The 1033 Program (formerly the 1208 Program) permits the Secretary of Defense to transfer, without charge, excess U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) personal property (supplies and equipment) to state and local law enforcement agencies (LEAs).
The 1033 Program has allowed law enforcement agencies to acquire vehicles (land, air and sea), weapons, computer equipment, fingerprint equipment, night vision equipment, radios and televisions, first aid equipment, tents and sleeping bags, photographic equipment and more.
[...]
* The property must be drawn from existing DoD stocks.
[...]
* All property is transferred on a first-come, first-served basis.
[...]
That's aah, aah,
something. Some serious protection, for something.
Department of Defense Excess Property Program (DoD 1033)
dps.mo.gov
The Department of Defense Excess Property Program (1033 Program) is authorized under federal law and managed through the Defense Logistics Agency's Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO) in Ft. Belvoir, Va. The 1033 Program provides surplus DoD military equipment to state and local civilian law enforcement agencies for use in counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism operations, and to enhance officer safety. The Missouri Department of Public Safety is the sponsoring state agency responsible for administration of the 1033 Program in Missouri.
Given that DoD local funding of one state's LEA's, who have also been involved in the
recent excessive use [aah 'nice photo'] of Deadly Force in that same state's streets --
against an Unarmed Citizen ...
It seems to be long past time to be asking them these 2 simple Questions:
They are armed to the teeth again, To Protect What? ... To Serve Whom?