“Light 'Em Up” Warrior-Cops Are the Law -- and Above the Law -- as Violence Grips America

"Light 'Em Up" Warrior-Cops Are the Law -- and Above the Law -- as Violence Grips America By William J. Astore From their front porches, regular citizens watched a cordon of cops sweep down their peaceful street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rankled at being filmed, the cops exceeded their authority and demanded that people go inside their houses. When some of them didn't obey quickly enough, the order -- one heard so many times in the streets of Iraqi cities and in the villages of Afghanistan -- was issued: "Light 'em up." And so "disobedient" Americans found themselves on the receiving end of non-lethal rounds for the "crime" of watching the police from those porches. It's taken years from Ferguson to this moment, but America's cops have now officially joined the military as "professional" warriors. In the wake of George Floyd's murder on May 25th, those warrior-cops have taken to the streets across the country wearing combat gear and with attitudes to match. They see protesters, as well as the reporters covering them, as the enemy and themselves as the "thin blue line" of law and order. Click here to read more of this dispatch. https://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176711/tomgram%3A_william_astore%2C_america%27s_forever_wars_have_come_home/#more