In a testament to how militarized police have become nationwide, a video from Gainesville, Florida shows a 23-year old veteran being pulled over last month by camouflaged cops driving and armored vehicle after he ‘flipped them the bird’. The cops stated that they pulled him over for making an ‘improper hand signal’ and accused him of engaging in a sexual act with his female passenger.
Gainesville is a college town filled with students attending the University of Florida – the cops were heavily outfitted in gear one would expect to see in Afghanistan so they could keep these ‘dangerous’ students in line while attending a three-day celebration of festivities highlighted by a Florida Gator scrimmage football game.
“I’m really getting pulled over by a tank right now?” Jewell, a Navy veteran, states, to which an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responds “yes sir”.
Jewell refers to a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling which found that a “gesture of insult is not the basis for a reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation or impending criminal activity.”
However, the cop is not interested and instead demands to see the Jewell’s license before making him step out of the vehicle.
The officer then starts to get angry and threatens to arrest Jewell for “resisting” because he is not obeying orders quickly enough.
The cop claims that Jewell performed an “improper hand signal”. Jewell responds by expressing his shock that a “safe community” would need tanks patrolling the streets, stating, “I didn’t know we were in Iraq”.
Another cop then objects to being filmed, claiming that the phone camera could be a firearm, before Jewell is eventually allowed to leave.
“Deputies felt the need to dress up like soldiers because it was Orange and Blue Weekend, a three-day celebration of festivities highlighted by a scrimmage football game between Florida Gator teammates that was free and open to all ages,” reports Carlos Miller.
Concerns about the militarization of U.S. law enforcement have heightened since last year’s unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
In December, we reported on comments made by a Spokane Sheriff’s Deputy defending the use of an MRAP armored vehicle by saying it was needed to deal with the threat posed by “constitutionalists”.
“I mean, we’ve got a lot of constitutionalists and a lot of people that stockpile weapons, lots of ammunition, they have weapons here locally,” the officer said.
During a New Hampshire city council meeting in 2013, former Marine Corps Colonel Peter Martino, who was stationed in Fallujah and trained Iraqi soldiers, asserted that the Department of Homeland Security was working with law enforcement to build a “domestic army,” because the federal government is afraid of its own citizens. Martino was responding to the city’s Police Chief, who justified the necessity for the acquisition of an armored ‘Bearcat’ vehicle by citing the “threat” posed by libertarians, sovereign citizen adherents, and Occupy activists in the region.
As we have exhaustively documented, the use of armored vehicles is just one sign of how law enforcement authorities are gearing up to deal with civil unrest in America.
Our sheriff’s don’t wear military camo this is not a war zone
Wow does their chief tell them to go out and act like this who decides when they get to take the tank out on pedestrians?
Once a long time ago! Not anymore.
You should check out what communism did and is still doing to the world. These government employees are communists not $#%&!@*s
What’s the problem conservatives? I thought cops were infallible heroes and if we had nothing to hide, we had nothing to worry about?
(Not defending liberals either; they’d $#%&!@* about not being hauled off to the labor camps by a trans woman of color….)
Get a real job $#%&!@*holes!
WTF!!!
Well, you have to admit, this is getting closer to what vets like him did sign up to fight for, after all. The PATRIOT Act was no secret or anything. Nor was it pitched as anything but part of the war effort.
Most cops could never hack being in the military.. they want nothing to do with a situation where the other side has guns
It’s a vicious circle. Citizens become more and more non trusting of law enforcement and so law enforcement ramps up its vehicles and weapons to intimidate the population. So the population in turn arms themselves more and more and the cycle repeats. Law enforcement needs to step back take a good look at their agenda and priorities. I NEVER saw these types of actions from police as a kid. As far as I remember their job is to protect and serve not intimidate and show how much of a hard $#%&!@* you are to the citizens of the United States. SMH.