Local Police, Military Soldier, or Hired Armed Guard?

     The line between police officer and soldier are becoming increasingly blurry, and have been since the 1960s when responses to perceived threats from local law enforcement at the state level began to reflect military tactical training (MTT).
     Corporations such as Solutions Group International offer local police departments training in MTT to “law enforcement, military, government, and private sector organizations.”
      Local departments have developed the mind-set that their community is a battlefield; and the advent and use of military-grade weaponry by police officers exacerbates the situation. Armed with M-16 rifles, armored vehicles and SWAT team gear on a daily basis, police officers are posing a measurable threat to American liberties.
     Special weapons and tactics or SWAT is specialized training that police officers can potentially partake in to learn the tactics used by the Special Forces in the military. This training includes how to:

Break into residences with battering rams; Use flash-bang grenades, designed to blind and deafen targets; “Clear” a building; and Subdue residents as quickly as possible

     Over 40 years ago, SWAT teams became employed in Los Angeles and by 1975; there were an estimated 500 teams in local police departments across the nation. In 2012, the numbers were in the thousands. Even the Department of Education, NASA, and the Consumer Protection Agency has them.
     In 2012, Louis F. Quijas, Assistant Secretary of the Office for State and Local Law Enforcement (OSLLE), for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained the purpose of the OSLLE as a front “office that provided coordination and partnership with state, local, and tribal law enforcement.”
     The OSLLE was recommended by the 9/11 Commission. It was created to “lead the coordination of DHS-wide policies relating to state, local, and tribal law enforcement’s role in preventing acts of terrorism and to serve as the primary liaison between non-Federal law enforcement agencies across the country and the Department.”
     Intelligence is disseminated through OSLLE to local police departments or “non-Federal law enforcement partners” to keep information flowing through initiatives such as If You See Something; Say Something, the Blue Campaign, the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI), and the Department’s efforts in Countering Violent Extremism.
       OSLLE consistently works with local departments on education, actionable information, operations and intelligence for the purpose of their part in the operations of the DHS with regard to keeping “our homeland safe. “
     OSLLE also works as a liaison between local police departments to maintain DHS leadership and considerations of “issues, concerns, and requirements of state, local, and tribal law enforcement during budget, grant, and policy development processes.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides funding to local police departments to send their officers to FLETC (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center), to receive militarized education in tactical operations.
     FLETC has locations in Georgia, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Washington DC. This federal militarization of local police extends to international policing agencies, which “develops, coordinates, manages, and delivers international training and technical assistance that promotes the rule of law and supports U.S. foreign policy.”
     The 2011 document entitled “Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States” outlines how a “comprehensive strategy” to counter the influence of al-Qaeda is being championed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with digital information sharing and coordinating intelligence with local law enforcement to thwart terrorist plots and “save many American lives.”
     The document names plots devised by neo-Nazis, anti-Semitic hate groups, racial supremacists, and international & domestic terrorists inspired by al-Qaeda as a threat to the US. The federal government is utilizing local police departments to build a “local level…resilience against violent extremism.”
     Using propaganda, under the guise of “local partners in their grassroots efforts to prevent violent extremism” the federal government is building a network with local law enforcement against the threat of radicalization online and in the real world.
     Over the last few years, the DHS have been indoctrinating local police departments into “non-Federal law enforcement agencies,” as outlined in their directive from the Office for State and Local Law Enforcement. DHS is successful in their relationship with local police departments all across the nation because they are contracted private security firms, a.k.a. hired armed guards, which are placed in a city or town to secure the population and generate revenue for the local government.
     In 2009, President Obama said that: “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

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