Has the NYPD Become a Paramilitary Force?

"I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh largest army in the world," former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg boasted back in 2011.

Since that time, the New York Police Department has become even more militarized, practiced in command-and-control practices that Brooklyn College sociologist Alex Vitale describes as "paramilitary policing."

The federalization and militarization of the NYPD following 9/11 created the model of paramilitary policing that's reshaping law enforcement throughout the country.

Vitale identifies these seven qualities as the principal aspects of the increasingly popular framework of paramilitary policing:

1.Surveillance and infiltration of nonviolent political organizations.
2.Denial of protest permits and tight restrictions on demonstration locations.
3.Heavy deployment and use of defensive equipment, such as body armor.
4.The use of 'less lethal' weapons on non-violent protestors.
5.Deployment of highly trained specialized police units to control demonstrations.
6.Preemptive arrests and targeting of protest leaders.
7.Coordination between local and federal law enforcement officials.

Other practices often accompanying paramilitary policing include the use of sophisticated cyber technologies, video surveillance and agents provocateurs.

More: Truthout

Worth the read.