A Paramilitary Policing Juggernaut

Juggernaut: "Anything that draws blind and destructive devotion ..." --American Heritage Dictionary, 2005 IT IS THE CONTENTION OF THIS ARTICLE THAT THE UNITED STATES IS CURRENTLY enmeshed in a potentially unstoppable global phenomenon that we characterize as a paramilitary policing juggernaut. Two forces drive this juggernaut. The first is the modern state's need to counteract the "clandestine dimensions of globalization" (Andreas, 2003: 108). The second is the proclivity of civilian police forces to adopt militarized forms of policing. Unless a greater awareness of this phenomenon is generated, the United States and its allies will travel the same path as that of countries like Israel, which is today battling the aftereffects of having adopted a militarized ideology of policing in which the "offender" is treated as an "enemy." Though neoliberal globalization may be the primary cause of this phenomenon, U.S. support for the use of paramilitary police in peacekeeping operations may inadvertently encourage even greater militarization of policing across the international community. Thus, unless these forces are controlled, the paramilitary policing juggernaut threatens to run roughshod over the provision of democratic policing on a global scale. This article begins by defining the key terms of police "militarism," "militarization," and "paramilitary policing." After elucidating the principal drivers of the paramilitary policing juggernaut, we examine its effects on democratic policing in the United States and abroad. Finally, after discussing the inherent difficulties involved in containing the juggernaut, we offer suggestions for action in this regard. Militarism, Militarization, and Paramilitary Police The most prominent scholar on the issue, Peter Kraska (2007: 3), best defines the distinction between police "militarism" and "militarization." The former he defines "in its most basic sense as an ideology ... that [stresses] the use of force and threat of violence as the most appropriate and efficacious means to solve problems," while defining the latter as "the implementation of [that] ideology." Thus, by Kraska's definition, militarization is actually a process through which police agencies adopt an increasingly martial culture, organization, material, and modus operandi. The term "paramilitary policing" has multiple meanings. It generally refers to "armed forces of the state that have both military capabilities and police powers" (Perito, 2004: 46). Although the paramilitary policing juggernaut identified here primarily concerns the militarization of the police, a second trend has become apparent, that of the "police-ization" of the U.S. military (Kraska, 2007). As these trends continue to converge, a "paramilitarization" of U.S. security is becoming increasingly evident. Paramilitary police are thus the most obvious manifestation of the adoption of a militarized ideology of policing, or the militarization of the police. The more militarized the police become, the more they come to resemble their military counterparts, both in ideology and form. Significantly, militarized police or paramilitary police tend to: (1) deploy as units rather than as individuals; (2) seek training from military personnel in the use of sophisticated weaponry, special apparel, and equipment; and (3) adopt a system of rank that replicates the structure of the military (Scobell and Hammitt, 1998). Though the United States has never had a specific paramilitary police force, such forces are common in other countries. The most famous of these include the French Gendarmerie, the Italian Carabinieri, and the Spanish Guardia Civil. These "gendarmeries," as they are informally called, generally compose a significant proportion of each nation's respective police forces and their militarized nature is usually manifest in their submission to the authority of their ministries of defense (Waddington, 1991). …