Security without Liberty: The Militarization of American Police

by Nomad

After the September 11 attacks, the American public was quite willing to make a trade off: the exchange of some of their constitutional rights and liberties in the name of security. Over the years, the level of police militarization has not decreased in comparison to the threat. If anything it has increased.

Americans have suddenly woken up to the fact that when you trade liberty for security, you end up with neither.

If there is one good thing to come out of the events in St. Louis, it is the increased attention that is now being paid to the wholesale militarization of the police. It is a subject we have covered several times in this blog.

Matt Apuzzo from the New York Times recently wrote an article which noted that in the Obama era:

“police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.”

Alternet also points out:

The result is that police agencies around the nation possess military-grade equipment, turning officers who are supposed to fight crime and protect communities into what look like invading forces from an army. And military-style police raids have increased in recent years, with one count putting the number at 80,000 such raids last year.

The article also adds that there is a racial element too:

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.”

Journalist Robert Patrick of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch provides us with information about the police force there. 

(This article is reprinted with permission.)

Pretend Patriots and Presidents: Comparing American Leadership in Photographs

by Nomad

Prohibited Person: What Happens If Texas Governor Rick Perry Becomes a Convicted Felon

by Nomad

Here's a quick peek into what Governor Perry's life might be like if he is convicted on felony charges.

It's a post title I never thought I'd write, that's for sure.

By now most people have heard the news that Texas governor Rick Perry has been indicted for abuse of power after carrying out a threat to veto funding for state public corruption prosecutors. Of course the most serious result of any conviction would be hard time in prison. A conviction on those charges carries with it a maximum punishment on the first charge is five to 99 years in prison. The second is two to 10 years.

While the charge and the possible punishments are not something about would dismiss lightly, nobody should be foolish enough to think that a conviction is a sure thing, of course.

This is, after all, Texas.

The possibility that Perry will ever walk down "Broadway" in an orange one-piece and state-issued bo-bos is fairly remote. However, supposing the judicial system can withstand the enormous political pressure that will doubtless be exerted, and Perry is actually convicted of these felonies, he might find life a little less lovely.

Even without any time in the Big House.

There are other legal limits imposed on a convicted felon For example he will no longer be allowed to serve on a federal grand or petit jury jury, according to Texas and federal laws.

Big Whoop, right? But that's the least important restriction. Let's take a look some others.

The Reagan Quote: Setting the Record Straight

by Nomad

Buried in the past post was a quote by Reagan and I think it is worth highlighting. It's a quote that many on the Right have used in a number of way unrelated to the subject that Reagan was referring to.
I made this meme to set the record straight.

If a right wing troll should ever challenge you to cite you sources, send him to this transcription of Reagan's Labor Day Speech at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey on September 1, 1980.

Why Elaine Chao, Wife of Mitch McConnell, Could Help Sink his Re-election Bid 3 /3

by Nomad

Here is the final installment in the series on Ms. Elaine Chao, wife of Senator Mitch McConnell and former Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush.

In this post we shall be looking at how under Ms. Chao, the regulatory authority of Department of Labor was systematically dismantled by conservative policy. The results were both predictable and devastating.

To view Part One

To view Part Two

Mining Safety under Ms. Chao

One agency that the Department of Labor oversees is the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) which administers the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety Act of 1977.

It is an important responsibility.
MSHA is authorized to force mining companies to comply with safety and health standards. Its goal is "to eliminate fatal accidents, to reduce the frequency and severity of nonfatal accidents, to minimize health hazards, and to promote improved safety and health conditions in the nation's mines." 

A kind of OSHA for the mining industry.

At the end of Elaine Chao's tenure as Secretary of Labor, MSHA came under fire for its generally lax attitude to mining safety. According to Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress,

"I think you've got people embedded there who are philosophically hostile to the mission of the agency."

One of those at the center of the storm was the head of MSHA, David Lauriski, a man who had actually worked for the coal industry most of his life. Early on in the Bush era he announced that reforms proposed by the Clinton Administration would be tossed out and that from now on, the agency would enforce those rules that "all parties can accept as necessary and practical."

For an agency whose primary purpose was to oversee the mining companies and protecting miners, the changes in policy came as a shocker. But it shouldn't have come as a surprise. Jumping in bed with corporations was practically a prime directive for the Bush agenda.