By G. Smith
People calling for an end to militarization of the police protested September 5 at the Marriott Hotel in Oakland against Urban Shield exercises held there September 4-8. Urban Shield is a federal program that conducts military drills with local police and Sheriffs Departments in various cities to practice how local police would combat and respond to a terrorist attack. The events showcase military hardware and are co-sponsored by private defense contractors.
The U.S. government claims the program is designed to combat terrorism in the United States but what is the real motive behind Urban Shield? The War on Terror was a made up war to give the U.S. government an excuse to wage a war on us, and to go to war in Iraq shortly after the 9/11 bombings. A war on terror is not a war in a real sense, for terror is a tactic, not an enemy that can be fought. The U.S. Government claims that terrorism was directed by Osama bin Laden or radical Islamic jihadist groups, whose origins are in the Middle East. However, it was the U.S. which created Osama bin Laden. He was originally an ally of the U.S. in its fight to overthrow the Afghanistan government. The total cost of Operation Cyclone — the code name for CIA financing of the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet War in Afghanistan from 1979-89 — was $20 billion, the most expensive, undercover CIA operation in history. Our tax dollars at work!
The U.S. government, which is a tool of the bosses / the capitalist class, is not afraid of factions in the Middle East dropping bombs on each other. The U.S. encourages such wars to keep the Middle East unstable. In reality, the U.S. government is afraid of us, the working people!
That is why the government wants drills like Urban Shield. It is a preparation to quell urban unrest and uprisings by the masses. Anger is certainly growing, as witnessed during the Occupy Movements that swept the country. The bosses are scared of us!
This is why our opposition is so bitter to Urban Shield. Urban Shield is a way for the bosses — and their government in Washington — to try to intimidate us, to rule through fear. Urban Shield has donated military hardware and military vehicles to various police departments in major cities across the country. Why does a police department need a tank? It is a scare tactic on the part of the bosses and their state to instill fear into the American people.
The riots and police response in Ferguson clearly demonstrate that when the masses are mobilized and take to the streets in large numbers, the police can’t stop us. All the donated military hardware ends up being used against us. The police and military use terror against the working people in this country on a daily basis.
Down with Urban Shield military exercises!