A Nation Under Siege: American Law Enforcement is an Occupying Force
As millions of Americans have taken to the streets, it has become obvious a movement is forming that demands recognition and reform. Since George Floyd was murdered in the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the outcry for justice and change has grown by the day. In major cities around the country, people of all ages and races have flooded the streets demanding to be heard. And, in nearly every instance, they have been met by overwhelming force in the form of armored police toting weapons of war and riding to battle in vehicles designed for the battlefield.
Described by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper as “the battle space,” police have worked to, as President Donald Trump called it, “dominate.” The maneuvers have been offensive. They have pushed old men to the ground. Beat people with their clubs. Deployed tear gas, which isn’t even allowed in war. Shot rubber bullets and pepper bullets at the people. In a few cases, have murdered unarmed people.
The scene became even more surreal on Monday when Trump ordered peaceful protestors brutalized so he could walk outside and send a message to his evangelical base. Later that night, a military helicopter was deployed to hover over protestors and attack them with the wind from its blades. This is a tried and true military tactic used against the American people.
Publicly humiliated by revelations that he had hid like a coward in the White House bunker, Trump pulled the stunt to make himself seem like a strongman, just as he had done in his call with governors where he demanded they “dominate” the people, lock protestors up for ten years, and pushed them to mobilize the National Guard to deal with their citizens.
In documents uncovered by the Associated Press, a plan codenamed Operation Themis (goddess of law and order) has been found that is mobilizing thousands of troops to prepare to wage war with Americans. Already, bases have been set up and plans put into action. It is the kind of operation we usually see happen in other countries on the news and read about in the papers and shake our heads. It is a government at war with its citizens.
But this is only another act in a long-running play.
The murder of George Floyd is just yet another in a long, exhausting line of moments of police brutality and institutional white supremacy. Scores of unarmed black men and people of color have been killed in the streets, in their homes, and brutalized and harassed for as long as America has had police. It is a disgusting history.
America’s founding and Constitution originated as responses to civil unrest, particularly rebellions against the wealthy and powerful. The federal government originated from fear that protests would spread through the states without an organized response. Our entire system is predicated on keeping the poor and minority populations under the heel of the boot of the rich and powerful.
Governmental sovereignty originates from the will of the people, or at least that’s what is espoused. This country was founded on circumventing that truth and restricting freedom by force and intimidation and the rule of prejudiced law. Now, the truth is being laid bare. Law enforcement is a tool of the wealthy and powerful in subduing literally everyone else.
America’s police are outfitted as an army because they are one. Instead of funneling resources into societal good, such as education, infrastructure, healthcare, or jobs programs, that money is instead invested in military units that roam the streets looking to crush any uprising of people of color or people or the impoverished. Instead of investing in human progress, that money is invested in systems of punishment and incarceration. It is an investment made by the wealthy and powerful in order to maintain their position as the wealthy and powerful.
These protests are about the rage of living in a society that has been engineered to entrench inequalities and the means by which those inequalities are enforced. It’s about more than body cams or police training. It’s about a society that is directly wired to brutalize its people with impunity. It’s about living in a failing state that can’t even pretend to provide for its people. And, as we’ve seen with Trump’s cruelty, it’s about living in a country that has declared war on its people.
Jared Yates Sexton is the author of American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed its People, available for pre-order from Dutton/Penguin-Random House. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, Politico, and elsewhere. He currently serves as an associate professor of writing at Georgia Southern University and is the co-host of The Muckrake Podcast.
