Jade Helm 15: Police militarization and troops deployed on American soil

Hi Fernando,

I was very touched that you wrote back to me and also published my email on your blog.  

I've also really enjoyed your analysis of the survival situation in Ukraine, especially breaking apart the finer points and details about how even wearing the wrong color jacket or shoes can signal a person out for interrogation and possibly death and how to manage the cell phone situation.

I have a question for you; there is a wide scale military "drill" thats been making news here in the US called Jade Helm 15.  

I wonder if you would be willing to give us some of your thoughts on this, and/or realistic "preps" for the various scenarios people think might happen? 

Some people are extremely concerned that its not a drill, and will be an integration of widespread martial law, possibly coinciding with a financial crisis. 

Other people think its a drill that is meant to habituate the US population to martial law, and others think its exactly what the official statement says it is; a training exercise to help our forces prepare for on-the-ground situations in foreign nations.

At the most minimum level, what concerns me the is that the United States has both laws and traditions where utilizing civilian areas for drills and training exercises isn't really cool.  

In the U.S we have, or used to have, a very clear distinction between military and civilian law enforcement, and we even have a separate thing called the National Guard so that when something happens that is too big for local law enforcement or disaster services to handle (like riots, or a big tornado), we have the necessary support and specialized equipment to deal with those situations without utilizing the military.   The guys who set up this country initially were pretty darn smart and wanted to do everything possible to ensure that our military was never used on our against our own citizens or on our land, as they knew how easily that turns into a coup. 

Here are a few different links in case you have not yet heard of it.

http://www.soc.mil/UNS/Releases/2015/March/150324-03.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/03/31/why-the-new-special-operations-exercise-freaking-out-the-internet-is-no-big-deal/

http://modernsurvivalblog.com/government-gone-wild/jade-helm-15-military-drill/

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3axduuybL0jdjZQUjhsSmJsZTA/edit

All the best,

Angela

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Hi Angela,
You address several interesting topics.
About police militarization, I do believe it has been going on for far too long and in the last decade or so (more like last two decades) it has gotten a lot worse.
It’s not just police using military clothing, but also military weapons and military tactics. It was disgraceful to see military-grade snipers sitting on top of armored vehicles taking aim at the (peaceful) protesters through their rifle’s scope. Exactly what were they supposed to do now? Attack the population with “sniper” fire?

Many current officers have served in the military, the distinction between military and civilian is already complicated enough. When you have guys that are already more soldier than cops, you dress them up as soldiers, give them soldier weapons and talk to them like soldiers, organize them like soldiers, and even put them inside armored vehicles, it’s not hard to see how they will act.

Now, some people may think this is good, that more “firepower” stops crime better and keeps streets safer. No, it does not. The role of a police officer is completely different from the one of a soldier. If you end up with “peace officers” that for all practical purposes are soldiers rather than cops, then you no longer have a democracy. We need to go back to having police, not troops with a “police” Velcro stuck on their body armor.
Regarding Jade Helm 15, I think there’s a bit of conspiracy theory going on but there’s some truth to some of the claims as well. It is true that people do get used to it if they see troops on the street on regular basis, which is something the military is interested in because it will reduce the friction with civilian society when deployed on domestic ground. It is also true that drills are intended as practice, and if they are practicing locally it would help if troops need to be deployed on US soil. Is it all precisely in preparation of riots after a potential economic collapse? Maybe, but then again, it is also valid in case of deployment due to a number of other potential reasons.

As of right now, I think its important to a)Keep law enforcement within its role, don’t’ allow its militarization under any excuse, don’t let cops turn into soldiers 2) Not allow the same the other way around, don’t let troops patrol, secure the streets, and basically do the job intended for police officers.
FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.