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In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me.
Washington Post ^ | July 24, 2015 | Alex Horton

Posted on 08/03/2015 9:04:26 PM PDT by Altariel

Edited on 08/04/2015 12:19:55 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

Alex Horton is a member of the Defense Council at the Truman National Security Project. He served as an infantryman in Iraq with the Army’s 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

I got home from the bar and fell into bed soon after Saturday night bled into Sunday morning. I didn’t wake up until three police officers barged into my apartment, barking their presence at my door. They sped down the hallway to my bedroom, their service pistols drawn and leveled at me.


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


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KEYWORDS: donutwatch; iraq; standingarmy; swat; virginia
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1 posted on 08/03/2015 9:04:27 PM PDT by Altariel
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To: Altariel

He has a good case for a suit. IMHO.


2 posted on 08/03/2015 9:08:18 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: Altariel

I would be making plans to visit a certain Lt. Rhoades and not writing a polite letter to the editor. And Lt. Rhoades and his family wouldn’t like it, not one little bit.

L


3 posted on 08/03/2015 9:11:59 PM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: Altariel

This rhoades clown would make an excellent Brown Shirt...


4 posted on 08/03/2015 9:12:05 PM PDT by snuffy smiff (Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.)
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To: Altariel
I can see why the guy gets published in the Times & the Atlantic:

"The short-sighted notion that we should always protect ourselves endangered us more in the long term"

5 posted on 08/03/2015 9:17:04 PM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: PghBaldy

Read that sentence in context.


6 posted on 08/03/2015 9:18:02 PM PDT by Altariel ("Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!")
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To: PghBaldy

To wit: if you keep pointing guns at everyone to intimidate them, they will starts shooting you first.


7 posted on 08/03/2015 9:21:26 PM PDT by ctdonath2 (The world map will be quite different come 20 January 2017.)
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To: Fungi

He should consider himself lucky that he didn’t have a child or dog to get shot.

Holy crap: I may have an overdue library book.


8 posted on 08/03/2015 9:23:24 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day".)
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To: Altariel

In long, low-intensity wars, soldiers become cops.

Later, cops become soldiers.


9 posted on 08/03/2015 9:24:12 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: Altariel

Alex Horton just replayed a story of what went on the Colonies that pushed the colonists to revolt against England and create the United States. It seems history is being repeated. Now the powers that be have taken away our rights, become militarized and too aggressive and they need to be stopped. legislation, lawsuits and reprimands have only made the situation worse. The Colonists appealed to the Magistrates and King of England in the same manner, and were met with military force.

I hate to say it, but the only recourse may be armed revolt against the powers that be. At first i was angry that African Americans were marching in the streets because a very small percentage of them were burning and looting. But now I realize they have been pushed into a corner by the Militarized police. And these situations are happening in cities and towns led by Democrats. And the Democrats are using militarized force. And their police are killing unarmed citizens. And the Democrats are using this as a pretense of racism. But it is the Democrats that are causing the means and the effect for political reason to point hatred to the party who is not involved. Are the Democrats of today the King George Military of Yesterday? Are we on the verge of a new American Revolution, one that will transform the country back to a Republic?

Maybe it’s time to lock arms with the African Americans, and point all this to the WH and the domestic policies of the Democrats. The shooting war has already begun. And the Democrats are winning it by spilling the blood of Americans in the streets.


10 posted on 08/03/2015 9:49:56 PM PDT by realcleanguy
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To: Altariel

I have little use for the WaPo. (aka the Washington ComPost)

But I agree that the militarization of the police is a serious and growing problem. It desensitizes us for our own destruction.

Several months ago when the Twin Peaks Biker fiasco took place in Waco, TX; I posted a link for the following article to the @WacoPolice twitter account (personal site of Sgt Swanton, aka Waco Police mouth(y) piece). He blocked me for my effort. Not that that amounted to much.

“Militarization Is More Than Tanks and Rifles: It’s a Cultural Disease, Acclimating the Citizenry to Life in a Police State”

http://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/militarization_is_more_than_tanks_and_rifles_its_a_cultural_disease_acclima#sthash.bfONekbb.dpuf

Within an hour of posting it, that article disappeared from his site. Yep, Feds had to do that. It later reappeared with slightly different title. The article did not fit someone’s agenda.

That incident months down the road has all the earmarks of a Fed Directed Screw UP. Nobody but a bureaucrap could handle things like they are. 9 lives lost, 20 injured, 170 people still in limbo. Most jailed for about 2 months. For most of them it was about nothing more than “being in the wrong place”.

Yep, smell the police state. And that is in Texas. Headshake


11 posted on 08/03/2015 9:50:31 PM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!)
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To: ctdonath2

I don’t disagree that the Iraq war was a terrible mistake, but he seems to be blaming the US military for the problems there, and not Islam & Bush.

He’s a leftist kook who is obsessed with the police. I do not trust him.


12 posted on 08/03/2015 9:54:19 PM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: Altariel

Military is intended to combat enemies of the State.

Police Officers are intended to protect and serve the public.

They are training Cops to behave like that the public is now the enemy of the State


13 posted on 08/03/2015 9:55:47 PM PDT by DanielRedfoot (Creepy Ass Cracker)
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To: DanielRedfoot

The Supreme Court has ruled that the police are under no obligation to protect citizens, a/k/a the public.


14 posted on 08/03/2015 9:58:24 PM PDT by sport
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To: PghBaldy

So he calls himself a guy with PTSD (elsewhere, I read his blog & Twitter feed & other articles), yet “sleeps” in an apartment this is not his, with the door open? Either he was exaggerating his mental state, was drunk, or set this up to try for a Pulitzer. I am shocked everyone takes his word as the unvarnished truth. It may be, but given his other statements, and his obsession with police killing blacks, I doubt him.


15 posted on 08/03/2015 9:58:31 PM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: Altariel

the police were very lucky the homeowner was not “ready” for them when they burst into his bedroom (as would have been the case had he had a dog or a burglar alarm ..as many homeowners do)

the police were very very very lucky


16 posted on 08/03/2015 9:59:42 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (up)
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To: DanielRedfoot

“They are training Cops to behave like that the public is now the enemy of the State”

Judging by the nature of our current “leadership”, it may well be that the public may be the enemy of the State. And the state will try and protect it’s power and wealth at all cost.

ComDem Party members will be good little Nazi’s. And some of the GOPe will be collaborators. (are they not already?)


17 posted on 08/03/2015 10:01:06 PM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!)
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To: PghBaldy

Did you read the article?


18 posted on 08/03/2015 10:04:34 PM PDT by Altariel ("Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!")
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To: Altariel

It appears that the author is unaware that police are not soldiers. They’re civilians.


19 posted on 08/03/2015 10:14:16 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: PghBaldy

https://twitter.com/alexhortontx there’s more - he worked for Obama - http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-va-a-blogger-criticizes-from-the-inside/2011/04/20/AF96tAdG_story.html


20 posted on 08/03/2015 10:17:54 PM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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