(Updated 12.15.06)
Check out this video: (I removed the Youtube video because Firefox 2.0 users and Safari users had trouble.)
This one may be more representative. Check it out as well.
The relationship between police and citizens in urban spaces with large non-white populations can be at the very least compared to the relationship between a colonial army, and colonized subjects. They are obviously not equivalents, but particularly after the sixties, what we began to see is the growing usage of military equipment, strategies, and tactics, to deal with men, women, and children, who are citizens. In fact the way police and millitary units actually share tactics, strategies, and resources across space (within a country, or between countries) is woefully understudied.
For the uninitiated the surge drill is used by the NYPD solely as a way to instill fear into citizens by displaying a public surge of force. What is particularly interesting here is that there is no perpetrator. That is to say, the police aren’t actually RESPONDING to anything here. I’m assuming that New Yorkers have taken this type of thing for granted.
They shouldn’t.
I’m a Firefox 2.0 user and I did have trouble. But of the YouTube videos I was able to view with the keywords NYPD, surge and drill, I saw nothing particularly worrisome.
As someone who has the personal experience of being able to say that could be my brother in one of those cars, I agree that citizens need to pay close attention to the efforts made for their protection.
I say this also as one who comes with the perspective which may sound unique but was also shared by the late Johnnie Cochran. ‘Equal protection under the law’ if it is to mean anything at all requires the presence of police on the scene when violent crime takes its toll. The price we pay for living in cities we didn’t build is living by rules we didn’t create. And it seems to me that if one is going to defend the ineffectiveness of police action, then there is a whirlwind to reap – which most likely will be negative, considering who builds cities and who does not.
The way that the politics of insurgency actually share tactics, strategies and resources across space is woefully understudied as well. Be careful what you wish for.
“living by rules we didn’t create.”
what exactly does that mean? what are those rules? are the costs/benefits of the rules distributed equally?
this video is actually far weaker than what surges look like in reality. the phrase “shock and awe” comes readily to mind. while i can understand why the military would want to use this strategy, which as i think about it differs from the blitzkrieg only in effectiveness, i think there are serious problems adapting military tactics to domestic space.