US govt. using military might to oppress people: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Tighe Barry, an activist with the CODEPINK from  Washington, about the use of militarized police forces against American people in the United States.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The matter of the militarized tactics used by police or the militarization of the law enforcement in the US is an issue that Press TV has raised and discussed over and over again but we’re only seeing this becoming worse.

Barry: Who even knew that the Dallas police force had a robot that could carry a bomb, I mean, this is a local police force that has a robot that carries a bomb and kills a person. Their excuses they felt like their lives were in danger and they couldn’t take this person alive. If they didn’t have this bomb-carrying robot, I’m sure that they would have held out there until they got this guy to give up and take him alive or unfortunately might have killed himself or whatever the conditions are.

But the fact of the matter is we have got military in our cities around this country. There is no longer a line between the military and police. They’re one and the same. This is an oligarchic state that they are giving all weekend we saw Jeh Johnson, head of Homeland Security, on the television talking about how he’s given all this equipment to these local police stations and as a good thing. And we find out that in reality it’s used to oppress people as they’re doing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

You’re going to see more because now we’ve got the Republican national convention and Democratic national convention coming up. You’re going to see people who want to demonstrate, want to call for an end to these endless wars, want to use our tax dollars to build our infrastructure, build our homes, allow Syrian immigrants to immigrate here, things like this. And we’re going to see police using military tactics on the streets of Philadelphia and Cleveland in a few short weeks.

Press TV: What factors would you attribute to this militarization of the police force? Is this a concerted effort on the part of the government? Is that for the profits of the military industrial complex or is it something else?

Barry: It's all of the above. They had no plan going into Iraq and so they come out and they've got all these are Iraqi veterans, who have PTSD, who are messed up in their heads and they have to do something with these guys because they don't have jobs for them. They haven't created any kind of infrastructure for them. So, they stick them in the police force and these guys are trigger-happy, they're using their guns to kill innocent black lives on our streets and others.

And the fact that this guy in Dallas was an Iraqi vet (veteran) with access to C-4 explosives, he had full auto weapons, he had a tactical gear in his home, he had a tactical gear on. And the fact that the Dallas police force had militarized equipment. This is all wrong, they bring in the military home. The military is going to be in our police force. They're getting more and more integrated. If the American people don't stand up right now for their rights, they’re going to be oppressed like they've never been before.

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