What Combat Veterans See in Ferguson, Missouri

I guess this is the place. I've not been much involved in this discussion but found this point of view very - well - enlightening and thought you all might as well.

The whole story can be found here:

www.vanityfair.com...

Watching the tragedy-turned-drama of this week unfold in Ferguson, Missouri—five hours up the road from my home in Arkansas—an eight-year-old scene kept replaying in my mind.

It was a little after dawn on Thanksgiving morning when the Afghan National Army soldiers and the Afghan National Police officers pointed their AK-47s and rocket propelled grenades at each other, jabbering threats in angry Pashto and Dari. They were about 30 feet away from where I was monitoring the radios in the passenger seat of my gun-truck. Suddenly, the hot turkey dinner my infantry platoon had been promised that afternoon at our remote outpost in the middle of Taliban-country in Ghazni province seemed pretty far away, given the inevitable turkey shoot. It had happened before, the A.N.A. and A.N.P. shooting at each other.

My lieutenant, a jacked 24-year-old Puerto Rican guy from Queens, marched between the two groups, wearing nothing more than a t-shirt, fatigue pants and flip-flops, and pushed the barrels of the lead AK-47s to the ground. Then he grabbed an R.P.G. from the hands of a policeman, pointed, and shouted some choice phrases in universally understood English until the two factions dispersed, embarrassed and chagrined.

There’s a stale old joke—the difference between the Boy Scouts and the Army is that the Scouts have adult supervision—but on Thanksgiving Day, 2006, my Lieutenant proved that wasn’t true. As I observed the chaos in Missouri this week, I kept wondering where the adults were.

I couldn’t get past the fact that the police in Ferguson were wearing better battle-rattle and carrying more tricked-out weapons than my infantry platoon used in one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan. Looking at the lines of cops facing off against angry protesters, I was alarmed at their war-like paramilitary posturing.

This veteran's conclusion:

To my eyes the police, whose business is peace , have no business strutting through the streets carrying M-4 carbines with reflexive-fire sights on top, surefire tactical flashlights on barrel-mounted rail systems slung from three-point harnesses, or white zip-tie flex cuffs over black-body armor, their eyes and faces obscured by gas masks and their heads covered with Kevlar helmets. A bunch of other combat veterans I stay in touch with online agreed. Indeed, besides black Americans, to whom these kind of disturbing images are hardly new, these veterans seemed the most irate, but also the most attuned to the danger posed by the cognitive dissonance of peace officers dressed for war—and not just in Ferguson, but in Boston in the wake of the marathon bombing.

He goes on to share the opinions of some of his Army buddies (including a small town cop) on the subject of a militarized police force.

It makes me think of the movie "The Seige" which gives a nice sense of the difference approachs and difference in stagety and tactics of the Military and Police forces. Their jobs are very different, their goals are very different, and their results are very different.

It's a well written and surprisingly entertaining article. Well Done, Matthew.

The police tactics used are out of line for sure. There is a political message going out.

This whole thing stinks of social engineering on a massive level. People are just too ignorant to notice it.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I may have missed it, but one thing I have noticed is the lack of information concerning the use of Smoke (HC) and Riot control (CS) grenades. (Just because they are grenade doesn't mean they bang).

HC and CS can and has caused a condition known as Dry-Land Drowning. It irritates the lungs to the point that the individual can drown in their own fluid. And it doesn't happen overnight, it can take time and also be misdiagnosed as pneumonia.

I have looked at the many photos of Police, the MSM, and the Protesters all shrouded in smoke without masks. These people are at risk.

I wonder how many will suffer the long term effects of this.

a reply to: FyreByrd

So true the children cops need supervision don't understand how the police can police the police and expect a real response from this

This article is a must read for all the people that seem so stuck on "facts" of the original incident.

Ty for posting this. I would totally support anyone getting in between LEOs that must play entirely too much COD and can't determine fiction from reality anymore.

This isn't the only account with this opinion I've seen its just not getting that much attention.

originally posted by: MentorsRiddle
The police tactics used are out of line for sure. There is a political message going out.

This whole thing stinks of social engineering on a massive level. People are just too ignorant to notice it.

I was strangely surprised that some of the interviewee's (the locals) had actually acknowledged and shared similar sentiment. One local protester called them "professional protesters" and "anarchists" in the same breath. You put those words together and it spells "social engineering".

originally posted by: MentorsRiddle
The police tactics used are out of line for sure. There is a political message going out.

This whole thing stinks of social engineering on a massive level. People are just too ignorant to notice it.

I think the message there trying to send out is look at how we deal with these folk in this small town so imagine the can of whoop ass we will open in the major city's if you try this sh!t

It was brought up yesterday (I forget by who) that we also showed the entire world how mighty we are.

I personally thought how embarrassing that display was. What if the message was how mighty we are?


a reply to: Thefarmer

a reply to: FyreByrd

I was thinking the same thing when I was watching this last night on FOX news from 10-11pm CT.

They were using the same tactics I was trained in as a MP. They were also much more equipped than a lot of combat patrols. I fully concur with the sentiments in the link.

One thing to note while I was watching this is how some of the so called "community leaders" were pointing out people or taking them over to police. There was also comments made by the reporters in the ground. One was that the media outnumbered the protesters 2to1 and the police outnumbered the media by about 2.5to1. Then Sheppard Smith went on to say, "that would mean 1 officer for every individual there. This is looking like nothing more than a media event than a protest".

Those couple comments to me made it clear that it was almost staged for the media to air. Like someone stated here "social engineering".

originally posted by: Iamthatbish
It was brought up yesterday (I forget by who) that we also showed the entire world how mighty we are.

I personally thought how embarrassing that display was. What if the message was how mighty we are?

Yeh mighty f'in stupid, getting all geared up like that for some protesters lol to see the pics you'd think ISIS had invaded

a reply to: Thefarmer

What we are seeing is the two Americas. And when I say that, I am not exactly saying it in the sense that everyone thinks of - rich and poor. I am talking about independent America which is where most of us still live ... barely and "kept" America, tyrannical America.

Think about the circumstances and culture of most of the people in Ferguson, independent of their race. They are likely mostly ill-educated and from broken homes. Most of them probably come from the culture where the first child is the ticket to independence from your mother. Where your baby daddy is likely out in the gangs somewhere and any prospect for a normal and stable family either for you or your child/children is poor. As a consequence, the state is the father for them just like it likely was for you, and when your son grows up, he'll likely go out on the streets to gang bang for a real daddy and your daughters will have children so they can marry the state and move out away from you. For this life, education is mostly unnecessary because everything is provided even though it's mostly crap and will never get better.

This is prospect of kept America, and it breeds resentment of anyone and everyone who has more and aspires to more, including independence. It's called acting white and selling out.

And when the state moves in, it deals with them like the ruled, kept people they are.

And the rest of us better watch this very carefully because it is the role the state wants for all of us. The state wants to bow all of us and destroy our families if it must, destroy our natures and culture in order to similarly reduce us to the state of reduced/kept people. It wants this because then it has power over us and we need it in order to have everything and anything.

removed. wrong thread

Don't you get it.
All they had to do was put this cop in jail for a bit and there would have been no excuse to riot. He was supposedly in danger anyway, why not lock him up for his own safety and to quell the revolt? Its not like they don't lock up innocent civilians all the time, then make them wait their turn in court.

The actual reason is that the power (PTB) in this country has gone to great expense and trouble to turn our police into soldiers, and to make us fear them. If you let a group of citizens demand that police be brought to justice for their actions, then those citizens will hold a power over the guys they are supposed to fear. You also would be allowing the poor majority to dictate the laws they are governed by, instead of the rich, powerful, minority. We all know that in a democracy its the rich minority that makes the laws, not the majority, right?

a reply to: defcon5

This again is a preview of where they want to take all of us. The cops will be special and above as employees of the State particularly when it comes to dealing with the citizens. This is always how it works in socialist/communist Utopias. The State officials are more equal than the rest of us. Ferguson is simply a preview, and it will only be a matter of time before they succeed in reducing the rest of us to that as well.