Why the police in Baton Rouge look like they’re dressed for war

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Police departments have received waves of criticism over the past two years for using military-grade equipment in relatively benign situations, and recent protests in Baton Rouge have reignited the debate over the role of such hardware in American policing.

Photographs and video shot over the weekend show Baton Rouge police, sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement officers clad in body armor and gas masks and wielding semiautomatic rifles. In one sequence, riot police and SWAT officers flank an armored vehicle as it eases through a relatively peaceful crowd, a scene that looks similar to a military patrol through a hostile city. The juxtaposition of the equipment and protesters is reminiscent of the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., in the weeks after the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

-snip-

According to Jason Fritz, a former Army officer and an international policing operations analyst, the resurgence of military equipment and heavy-handed tactics in Baton Rouge is the byproduct of a state-centric approach to policing, one of the two policing philosophies most commonly seen in the United States.

In Baton Rouge’s case, Fritz says, the police are there to disperse protesters and protect themselves.

This is opposite of what has been seen in Dallas in the days both before and after Thursday’s killing of five officers there, according to Fritz. “They’re there to protect the citizens first and then themselves,” he said of Dallas’s citizen-centric approach.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/07/11/why-the-police-in-baton-rouge-look-like-theyre-dressed-for-war/?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

[Wounded Bear]

1. Yes, been seeing more and more of this...

It is distressing, to say the least.

[FLPanhandle]

2. Unfortunately, body armor might have been helpful in Dallas

Dallas is justifying the BR approach.

[Skittles]

5. no shit

[Hoyt]

3. Louisiana needs General Russel L. Honoré. I still get chills when I think of him yelling at

a caravan of reservists coming into flooded NOLA in trucks just after Katrina with their rifles on ready -- "Put those goddamned rifles down, we are not here for that."

[peace13]

4. It would interesting to see a psychological study of this...

......police officers dressed as soldiers. The large percentage of police have served in the military and have seen combat or oversees duty. When they dress like a soldier how does the brain remember that these are US citizens and not the enemy they are facing. Or is there a difference any more?

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. That is an excellent question

Countless psychological studies have demonstrated that how we are attired affects not only our outlook and attitude, but also our performance. It would stand to reason there could be a difference when donning military gear verses a police uniform.