[Texasforever]

Only the ignorant gripe and moan with fear about OUR military being "let loose"

Only the ignorant would belive that would solve anything. But I repeat myself.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Congress passed the "Posse Comitatus Act" in 1878 to end military occupation of the Southern states during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. "Posse Comitatus" is literally the power of a sheriff to summon the assistance of the general populace to help keep the peace or to pursue and arrest felons. However, the Posse Comitatus Act was passed to prohibit local law enforcement from enlisting any branch of the military and local law enforcement functions. The statute embodied a long-standing principle in Anglo-American law that there should be a total separation of the military from civilian law enforcement. During the debates on the original Posse Comitatus Act, Southern Democrats complained bitterly about the oppressive use of the military in a law enforcement role. One Southern Senator said, "whenever you...use the Army to...discharge those duties that belong to civil officers and to the citizens, then you...no longer (have) a government for liberty; it has become a government of force."