Hey everyone, and welcome to #MintCasts, our MintPress podcast series. I’m Mnar Muhawesh, editor-in-chief of MintPress, and I’ll be your host.
Detention without charges and intimidation was the order of the day for Ferguson, Missouri, police again, with a heavily militarized force continuing to bully protesters while also vowing to continue arresting journalists who are working to cover the situation in Ferguson after an unarmed black teen was shot and killed by a police officer over a week and a half ago.
The ACLU says that the First Amendment has been suspended in Ferguson, and gone are the days of billy clubs and flashlights, which have been replaced with armored suits and gas masks. This, of course, is just the beginning, as the Department of Defense has been beefing up local police agencies with military-grade weapons, gearing them up for war. But as the media acts surprised by the militarization of police, civil liberty activists have been reporting this abuse of power by those who have sworn to protect — not intimidate — since the early ‘90s, when the National Defense Authorization Act was first introduced.
Founder of People Against the NDAA, Dan Johnson, joins me today from Ferguson to talk about the parallels between the NDAA and the militarization of police — and why in the United States of America, home of the free, our police are gearing up for war, crushing peaceful protests and intimidating journalists.
You can find this podcast through our MintPress iTunes channel and on our website. But the conversation is far from over, as we’d like to hear more from our readers and listeners on the subject the NDAA, militarization of the police, and if you think reform of our police is on its way. Tweet at us using hashtag #MintCasts, and tell us what you think. You can also post on our Facebook page in the comments section of our pinned post featuring this podcast.