.... the instinctive reaction for the US authorities to put the military on the streets show this has a long way to go. The State is doubling-down on the State-sanctioned violence and oppression that has precipitated and inflamed the crisis, instead of seeking urgent and lasting resolutions inside their own agencies of the State where the problems clearly lie. The parallels with the bungling public health response to the pandemic inside public health state agencies is not coincidental but symptomatic of broad institutional decay and dysfunction.
It wont end until the whole of the militarized apparatus of State oppression is dismantled and scrapped now. The military should only ever be retained for defending against external threats, never turned upon the people who pay their wages, that's the final turn of the vicious spiral into anarchic civil war (suspension of habeas corpus). Police were only ever meant to be Officers of the Peace, never Law Enforcement. After total War the military hands over control of the streets to Officers of the Peace; militarisation of the police and putting military on the streets is naturally escalating society back to wartime conditions.
None of this is unexpected, it has been happening gradually in clear sight for those willing to see, only now it has accelerated to the point when it is plain for all to see. Effectively, USA is already in the early stages of a state of civil war.
Abraham Lincoln spoke of government "of the people, by the people, for the people". This was the ideal of democracy.
It seems it has now become government "against the people, versus the people, over the people". Is this is what American "democracy" has become?
No thinking person is advocating anarchy. Without basic law and order, corporations and other criminals would take over.
We do need community-level policing. The problem is indeed the militarization of what should be a constabulary of local residents. Constables should be known to other local residents on a personal level. Even in big cities, this is possible on a neighborhood-to-neighborhood basis. Constables should display their names with pride.
Military and paramilitary forces should only be used against foreign threats. Unfortunately, the Military-Industrial Complex that Dwight Eisenhower warned about has become too profitable to be sustained by defense and has increasingly relied on offense to keep up the revenues.
Political bribery (lobbying) means that governments are for sale to the highest bidder.
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What can be done?
Constitutional changes should outlaw lobbying and limit police use of force.
The military should be be used only for national defense, not for international meddling nor domestic political purposes. Military budgets should be reduced in an orderly fashion so as not to trigger a military takeover. The military should be used domestically primarily to control police excesses.
As I mentioned, Law Enforcement should be replaced with local constabularies with only a basic federal force to keep the police in line.
The whole dirty little system of spying on and keeping files on citizens should be dismantled.
It would be best if this were done peacefully but we all know that more likely those who wield the power now won't give it up without a fight.
I agree with everything you say Jimbo, except the last paragraf, I think it can be done peacefully, but i think it takes some kind of major event that changes the sentiment of the society to do that.
