Long before the RNC in the summer of 2000, police in Los Angeles worked closely with military officers on crowd control and situational handling. This document from the "Miltary Review" (aka "The Professional Journal of the United States Army") outlines the militarized tactics used on demonstrators in Los Angeles. It's author, a Lt. in the LA Sheriff's Department and USMC reservist, attempts to justify a militarized approach in dealing with citizens of a Democracy. You, the citizen and your right to assemble, are in the crosshairs.
45 Crowds, Mobs and Nonlethal Weapons
by CWO-5 Sid Heal, US Marine Corps Reserve
Peacemaking is neither
painless nor easy but fraught with danger, misperceptions and criticism.
According to one political leader, "Making peace, I have found, is much
harder than making war."1 To accomplish those difficult peace-keeping
missions, being considered just is more important than being considered
powerful. The payoff can be substantial, for "the greatest honor history
can bestow is that of peacemaker."2
Peacekeeping as Warfighting
An examination of peacekeeping and warfight-ing, despite their similarities,
is a study of contrasts. First, peacekeeping operations are highly sensitive
to political objectives and tend to cast the military in a supporting,
rather than a leading role. The military has developed doctrine and honed
procedures to prepare for and execute war. Peacekeeping operations, however,
present new problems for which there are few readily apparent solutions.
Second, adversaries during peacekeeping operations are often amorphous
and difficult to identify. Factions with shifting loyalties and alliances
can be friend one day and foe the next
www-cgsc.army.mil/milrev/English/MarApr00/hea.htm
Original: Military Crowd Control Deployed in LA