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My support for a militaristic solution caused all hell to break loose. Rocks, bottles and newspaper racks went flying. Windows were smashed, stores were looted, fires lighted; and more gas filled the streets, with some cops clearly overreacting, escalating and prolonging the conflict. The \u201cBattle in Seattle,\u201d as the WTO protests and their aftermath came to be known, was a huge setback\u2014for the protesters, my cops, the community.<\/p>\n
More than a decade later, the police response to the Occupy movement, most disturbingly visible in Oakland\u2014where scenes resembled a war zone and where a marine remains in serious condition from a police projectile\u2014brings into sharp relief the acute and chronic problems of American law enforcement. Seattle might have served as a cautionary tale, but instead, US police forces have become increasingly militarized, and it\u2019s showing in cities everywhere: the NYPD \u201cwhite shirt\u201d coating innocent people with pepper spray, the arrests of two student journalists at Occupy Atlanta, the declaration of public property as off-limits and the arrests of protesters for \u201ctrespassing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The paramilitary bureaucracy and the culture it engenders\u2014a black-and-white world in which police unions serve above all to protect the brotherhood\u2014is worse today than it was in the 1990s. Such agencies inevitably view protesters as the enemy. And young people, poor people and people of color will forever experience the institution as an abusive, militaristic force\u2014not just during demonstrations but every day, in neighborhoods across the country.<\/p>\n