Crisis and the Creeping Militarization of US Society

This past weekend, Kanaka Maoli activist and cultural practitioner Andre Perez reported that during the closing ceremony of Makahiki at Ka’ena Point, their group observed an unmanned aerial drone flying over head, spying on their activities.

Ka’ena is at the western tip of O’ahu near the Air Force Satellite Tracking Station and the Army’s Makua Training Area. Perez wrote:

Today while on our Huaka’i out to Ka’ena, just as we went through the predator fence prison style double door chamber lock, I happened to look up and behold! Not far above, maybe 500 ft. or so, gliding quietly and ominously right over us was one of those military UAV drones and it was not one of those small model like ones, this one was huge, its hard to say but the wing span must have been like 30-40 feet across, maybe more… and we could see the big camera bubble on the belly as it cruised slowly over head. I have to say, it was amazing that if I never look up, we would have never known. It felt invasive and scary that the military can monitor us and even kill us by remote control. It made me realize that “Big Brother” and the “Eye in the Sky” is the reality. I bet, in a short amount of time, these things will become the norm, flying everywhere as common as birds, watching everyone and everything even some braddahs and their sons on a Makahiki holo puni.

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Why are military UAV stealth drones flying over civilian area’s on Oahu? One very similar to this was seen cruising over Ka’ena pt. yesterday, 2/18 around noon.

In “Crisis and the Creeping Militarization of US Society,”  Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall of George Mason University decry the militarization of U.S. society:

Earlier this month, Congress passed House Resolution 658, the “Federal Aviation Administration Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act,” which President Obama is expected to sign. One of the over 1,000 sections of H.R. 658 authorizes domestic use of aerial spy drones by the U.S. government.

This is but the latest case of the increased militarization of U.S. police forces. Other examples abound. Under Program 1033, the U.S. military provided police with over $500 million in military equipment in 2011, more than double the amount allocated by the government a year before. Small town police forces have been equipped with SWAT gear and automatic weapons. State and local law enforcement are receiving training akin to that expected in the armed forces.