News Release

Escalating Militarization of Police

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PETER KRASKA, peter.kraska[at]eku.edu
Kraska is professor and chair of Graduate Studies and Research in the School of Justice Studies Eastern Kentucky University. He is considered a leading expert on police militarization and is author or co-author of numerous books including Militarizing The American Criminal Justice System: The Changing Roles of the Armed Forces and Police.

See his tweets about latest developments via @Peterkraska: “Steady chorus on MSM about how police reforms take time. BS. Requires putting real reforms into place. This Never happened!” “Folks talked about the Us vs. Them before Dallas. They ain’t seen nothing compared to what’s coming. I warned WH commission — deaf ears.” See interview with Kraska: “White House Commission May End Up Training More Cops to Use Military Weapons.”

MARJORIE COHN, marjorielegal[at]gmail.com, @marjoriecohnhttp://marjoriecohn.com/
Cohn is professor emerita at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law and editor and contributor to Drones and Targeted Killings: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.

She is quoted in the just published piece by CommonDreams.org: “Legal Experts Raise Alarm over Shocking Use of ‘Killer Robot’ in Dallas.” Says Cohn: “Police cannot use deadly force unless there’s an imminent threat of death or great bodily injury to them or other people. If the suspect was holed up in a parking garage and there was nobody in immediate danger from him, the police could have waited him out. They should have arrested him and brought him to trial.

“Due process is not just enshrined in our constitution, it’s also enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the U.S. has ratified, making it part of U.S. law. …

“The same way that the Obama administration uses unmanned drones in other countries to kill people instead of arresting them and bringing them to trial, we see a similar situation here. … As the technology develops, we’re going to see the increasing use of military weapons in the hands of the police, which is going to inflame and exacerbate a very volatile situation.”