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Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are speaking out against the militarized response of the police in Ferguson, Missouri, earlier this week.
Police in camouflaged uniforms, with helmets, body armor, armored vehicles and all kinds of guns confronted protesters outraged at the killing of an unarmed teenager.
‘Ferguson’s cops are armed like I was in Iraq.’ That’s the title of a new piece in the Daily Beast by former Army Capt. Phillip Carter.
Carter served a year in Baquba, Iraq, in 2005 and 2006, as an adviser embedded with Iraqi police. He’s also a lawyer, and in 2009 served as a deputy assistant secretary of defense. He’s now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.
“They don’t have the on-call artillery and helicopters that we did,” Carter says. “But in terms of what they’re carrying, it’s almost exactly the same gear. The same body armor, the same rifles, and in some cases the same vehicles.”
“It’s a jarring comparison,” Carter says. “It doesn’t sit well, and it makes me wonder whether the militarization of our police force has gone too far.”
He calls the response “absurd.” MOREHERE