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A Paramilitary Policing Juggernaut

This article identifies an emerging global trend in law enforcement that the authors characterize as a ‘paramilitary policing juggernaut.’ After defining what the juggernaut entails, they critically analyze its causes and effects and highlight the integral role played by the U.S. in its promotion. This juggernaut threatens to undermine the provision of democratic policing across the international community. Left unchecked, this process also threatens to reach a point of near irreversibility, a threshold seemingly already crossed by the heavily militarized Israeli National Police. The article concludes by suggesting mechanisms to control the paramilitary policing juggernaut before the U.S. reaches this critical juncture.

paramilitary policing, SWAT, gendarmeries, 1878 Posse Comitatus Act

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 36, No. 1 (2009): 25-40