Military patrols start Friday night in downtown Columbus

COLUMBUS, Ga. --
Starting at 10 o'clock Friday, two senior non-commissioned officers from Fort Benning will be on courtesy patrol. The soldiers will be wearing arm bands that read, "Courtesy Patrol."

Fort Benning Commanding General Robert Brown and Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson made the announcement earlier this week.

They need to increase security in Uptown Columbus comes after two weekend incidents in early April.

www2.wrbl.com...

While these are labeled as "courtesy patrols", it is more than likely going to be scrutinized, and should it stem the level of crime in this area I think we will see it used on a much wider scale. Of course they are claiming that this is only to keep soldiers from Ft. Benning from getting out of hand, and while these two soldiers are not allowed to make any arrests, all they have to do is alert the MPs.

I truly believe that this will be widely used in other cities and citizens will applaud the way it helps keep crime in check. From there it will only take off. Full-scale patrols of our streets, and when it becomes a problem TPTB can say that the American public asked for the patrols.

And thus it begins.......

Thanks for posting this. S&F. This is total horse___t! The military is not supposed to be involved in law enforcement in the U.S. For a very good reason IMO. I am not ok with this. We are losing our freedom every day.

Yowza! Behold the birth of a military state.

reply to post by avatar22


That it has. At first we (the American public), or at least the sheeple, will complain that it violates our rights. But just like TSA scans the people will grow complacent and just accept it as a part of everyday life.

And TPTB will claim it is necessary to curb an ever-increasing terrorist threat.

Mayor Tomlinson says the soldiers will not be able to make any arrests, but will be able to command order of all military personnel and if need be, alert military police.

“You can’t arrest someone for being intoxicated, but a senior officer can order you back to base or have military police come get you and bring you back to base,” says Tomlinson.

This sounds more like a patrol to keep the soldiers in line, reminds me of the "shore patrol"...

If the troops get a bit rowdy, these patrols can "order" them back to the base.

.

reply to post by JacKatMtn


While this may very well be the case in the beginning, how long will it be before the MPs are called to arrest ordinary citizens?

reply to post by JacKatMtn


Yes, if the rowdy soldiers are the problem, then having military officials there to police their own is a good thing.

On the other hand, if this turns out to be a backdoor way of allowing the military to supplement regular law enforcement, instead of the community taking charge and hiring more of its own law enforcement, then it is a lose-lose situation.

The article concludes:

This is not the first time the City of Columbus has enlisted the help of military courtesy patrols, but it has been years since the practice was used.

WRBL.com

This sounds like a pretty normal state of affairs for a military town.

I could find nothing about the equipment that the soldiers would carry with them. The video portion of the story did state that one officer and one enlisted person would work in tandem. I am interested to know if the curtsey patrol will be armed with any weapons or will they only use a radio/cellphone to try and communicate with local law enforcement. Technically they could patrol downtown to police their own soldiers and just say they are out for a walk at night.

As long as they have no weapons on their person than the patrol is not something I would be concerned about. As soon as they start rocking M9's and M4/M16's then I would be worried about a violation of the Posse Comitatus act.

Of course this does not take into account the newly updated as of 2006 Insurrection Act which invalidates the Posse Comitatus act and would in fact allow fully armed active duty military members to be used for policing your local downtown.

en.wikipedia.org...

Just when you thought you had it all figured out along comes those helpful lawmakers to change the wording around. Do not be surprised when suddenly they cannot afford to pay for local police and the friendly helpful military comes to save the day!

They do this in military towns in Germany and Italy also.

It keeps soldiers out of trouble and they drive a van to give a lift to the soldiers without one. Its a good program that needs to be extended to all military bases.

Originally posted by idonotcollectstamps
I could find nothing about the equipment that the soldiers would carry with them. The video portion of the story did state that one officer and one enlisted person would work in tandem. I am interested to know if the curtsey patrol will be armed with any weapons or will they only use a radio/cellphone to try and communicate with local law enforcement. Technically they could patrol downtown to police their own soldiers and just say they are out for a walk at night.

My experiance is that they don't carry any radios or weapons. Basically they just drive by in popular soldier hangouts and make sure the soldiers are alright, staying out of trouble and don't plan on driving while intoxicated.

You are not far off when you said they could say they are just out for a walk.

reply to post by IamAbeliever


That's a bit out of context in my opinion, the article says that the MP's could be called in to assist in returning the soldiers to the base.

Pure speculation here on my part, but I would suspect that the "courtesy patrol" would work with the local law enforcement should there be an incident.

I see this more of a "nip it in the bud" deal, since there have been some recent events.

Also speculation, but I am thinking that the base commander isn't liking the reports of these recent events

'bout all I can say on this, is in my signature.

There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.

reply to post by JacKatMtn


I agree it's nothing new. It's a fear mongering title.

Well at least I hope it is.

This is kinda local to me. Columbus, GA is slightly closer to me than Atlanta, and is therefore the closest decent sized city to me. This is tamer than what I've seen in Columbus in the not too distant past. No big "and so it begins story here", sorry. These guys aren't armed, and only have any authority at all over military members. Just a couple of years ago they had armed MP's in downtown keeping the soldiers in line.

Something similar to this is or has been done outside every military base on earth probably since forever. It helps. The GI's are discouraged from doing something stupid that will only get them in trouble or hurt their careers.

Anyways, since this is close to home I'll share some quick personal knowledge about Columbus. I've had some pretty good and crazy times in Columbus. The nightlife is pretty damn crazy sometimes. A large military base right in the middle of such a redneck area can lead to some excitement. The local drag right off the Ft. Benning is Victory Drive (called VD drive by locals and GI's) tit-tee bars, massage parlors, liquor stores, and pawn shops. Downtown (where the OP story is taking place) over the past ten years has improved quite a bit. Columbus is still a rowdy town though. It's surrounded by a bunch of rowdy little southern towns in both Georgia and Alabama (including Phenix City that George Patton threatened in the 30's). I can remember about six or seven years ago when it seemed like every damn bar in the city was off limits to military. Last time I was down there three or four years ago, they actually had a two man patrol of actual MPs downtown.

Too late to escape over the Alps to Switzerland; our passports are already RFID chipped.

interesting stuff. s&f

Originally posted by JacKatMtn
reply to post by IamAbeliever

 

That's a bit out of context in my opinion, the article says that the MP's could be called in to assist in returning the soldiers to the base.

Pure speculation here on my part, but I would suspect that the "courtesy patrol" would work with the local law enforcement should there be an incident.

I see this more of a "nip it in the bud" deal, since there have been some recent events.

Also speculation, but I am thinking that the base commander isn't liking the reports of these recent events

You guys misunderstand what this is about, at least that is my opinion.
I believe this is all about allowing the military to be seen patrolling the streets and slowly getting us used to it.
Before it was only during emergency or disaster situations, now they are "creeping" them into an everyday situation.
Whats funny is, I dont even think they need to do this slowly, nobody seems to care anymore. I think they could, right now, have major military patrols in every major city of the US and people would just bitch about the inconvenience and not even care about the real issue.
Ive completely lost faith in the average US citizen.

To all of the posters jumping to conclusions get educated. I have been in the Army for 23 years. These patrols are just to keep Soldiers out of trouble. I have done these patrols numerous times. A typical night is to go to the popular hangouts for Soldiers sit around in each one for 45 mins to an hour and go to the next one. The owners/bartenders of these establishments really appreciate this service. We carry no weapons. As senior NCOs and Officers you can talk sense into most Soldies and diffuse most situations.

The above is not opinion it is fact, at least for the Army.