I've taken issue with the militarization of police that's happened over my lifetime, but having an active military unit (3rd infantry divisions 1st combat team) in the United States for the purposes of crowd control would, I believe, technically qualify as indefinite martial law. The pevious case of martial law in the US was during Katrina when local law enforcement was unable to deal with the aftermath, but Blackwater contractors being used and repeated reports of civil rights abuses in that instance suggest a very dangerous situation we might be headed into.
I'm suddenly very, very uncomfortable.
What are your thoughts on having an active military unit in the United States for an unstated amount of time, supposedly for "crowd control"?
Aside from the aforementioned discomfort, my mind is telling me about a thousand horrible things that this could mean. The most frightening, obviously, is a case in which Bush is somehow able to remain in power, but I keep having to tell myself that's just paranoia.
I suppose a more reasonable conclusion would be that this is further evidence that protesting is not going to be tolerated. After the creation of free speech zones, I had an idea of what might happen to the right of free speech and assembly, but I must say I didn't expect the military.
My last concern is that the military has weapons unavailable to police that could potentially be much, much more dangerous to protesters. My heart aches at the thought of a man or woman being hurt or killed while trying to get their voice heard by the powers that be (or rather the powers that simply don't care).
October 1st will be a sad day for my country.