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11:04 AM - Friday, Feb. 04, 2005
The Softening or Hardening Of America..



I'm more and more disturbed about the police state and militarization of our schools and society in general.....Why are we "hardening" our youth so much? I am saddened by all of the hatred and violence occurring in our schools and other places. The police are/were once there to "protect and serve right???" Now they seem to be the ones to "enforce and fear".
I don't like it at all...I don't.....neo



Gun-Wielding Cops Conduct Drug Sweep At School
Drug Sweep Finds No Drugs

ps. Who and why is this millitary man in the school?

A drug sweep Wednesday morning at a South Carolina school has some parents and students questioning police tactics.

Surveillance video from Stratford High School in Goose Creek shows 14 officers, some with guns drawn, ordering students to lie the ground as police searched for marijuana. Students who didn't comply with the orders quickly enough were reportedly handcuffed.

Police didn't find any criminals in the armed sweep, but they say search dogs smelled drugs on a dozen backpacks.

The school's principal defended the dramatic sweep.

"We received reports from staff members and students that there was a lot of drug activity," said George McCrackin. "Recently we busted a student for having over 300-plus prescription pills. The volume and the amount of marijuana coming into the school is unacceptable."

The parents of some students who were subjected to the sweep disagree.

"I was just upset knowing they had guns put to their head and a canine was barking at them and about to bite somebody," said Latonia Simmons, the parent of one student. "It was awful..."




St. Paul police add Tasers to school patrols
By JAMES WALSH
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
February 02, 2005

- There's something different about officer Julie Maidment this week. She's still doing the same job, protecting St. Paul, Minn., Highland Park High School as its school resource officer. She's still chatty and easy with a smile, more likely to talk kids away from trouble than to punish them.

But if you look closer, you see it - that small, bright yellow weapon on the left side of her equipment belt. On Monday, Tasers made their first appearance in Minnesota schools on the belts of St. Paul officers.

St. Paul police are putting Tasers in the schools, not as a response to any problems but as part of their ongoing effort to train and equip all their officers with the weapon, said officer Paul Schnell, a department spokesman. St. Paul police began outfitting officers with Tasers in February 2004.

Police in schools from Arizona to North Carolina, Indiana to Florida, now carry Tasers on the job. In some communities around the country, the weapon has sparked debate over whether police should ever use it on kids. In Miami, two recent Taser incidents involving school kids, including one 6-year-old boy who was cutting himself with glass, have prompted Miami-Dade County schools to reexamine policies regarding Taser use.

"When you first hear about this, you think, 'Holy smoke, is Captain Kirk going to be blowing people away?' " said Bill Dunn, a longtime St. Paul school administrator and principal of Arlington High School.

"But then you realize, these things are used by highly trained professionals who have a great deal of accountability in how they're going to use it."

sorry..I don't buy that.....I really am leaning more and more towards Home schooling as the answer....I don't want my kids exposed to this nonsense...

Police say it's a non-lethal addition to their arsenal, a way to enforce order without causing serious injury. -Bullshit-

The rationale: The weapon gives police a way to quickly restrain or disarm someone before they can do harm to themselves or others.

-Bullshit-

John Lane, whose daughter Gretchen attends Highland Park, said he'd heard nothing about the Tasers until Gretchen mentioned it. That bothers him, he said. "The school board should have told us something," he said.

But he said Tasers in the hands of the police don't bother him. "If they're carrying guns anyway, I would prefer they use the Taser instead of their real gun if it comes to that."

In fact, said Sgt. Paul Strong, who supervises school resource officers, Tasers make sense in schools. Imagine, he said, that a fight breaks out and a crowd of kids gathers. Officers would be limited in what they could do. A swinging nightstick could hurt a bystander; chemical irritant spreads out and could choke dozens of other kids. A Taser, Strong said, hits the person it's aimed at, immobilizing them and no one else. And, he said, that bright yellow gun certainly has a deterrent effect.

"It should be able to calm situations down quicker," Strong said.

Maidment, who totes a pistol, telescoping nightstick and chemical irritant in her belt around school all day, said it's just another tool for police to use if the situation calls for it. But developing relationships with kids is the most frequent tool, she said.

"This isn't like on the streets, where you respond to calls and react to crime," she said, while visiting with students in the Highland Park cafeteria. "In the schools, you're always being proactive. You get to do a lot of educating, hanging out with kids."


Now, to add to this...Read this Insanity Below and Tell me... If any of this is helping, why is Crime more Rampant in schools today then it was when we were kids????

Chemical spray used on students
Manual High group was protesting time given to get to classes, saying it's inadequate.

By Kim L. Hooper
[email protected]
February 4, 2005


A peaceful student sit-in turned unruly at Manual High School, and school police used a chemical spray to disperse the crowd Thursday afternoon.

Duncan Pat Pritchett, the Indianapolis Public Schools superintendent, said it appeared officers overreacted by using the spray.

"Students do have First Amendment rights," he said. Wow...U don't say?

About 100 students were in a hallway when police sprayed several bursts of the chemical in the air to disperse the crowd. No injuries were reported.

How do u know what substance was used? What about long term effects..?

Those students had been among about 400 protesting the lack of time they have to pass between classes before being marked tardy. Students now have five minutes to change classes.

Construction in some areas of the Southside high school makes it difficult to get from one side of the building to another.

Students caught in hallways after the late bell are written up; three write-ups result in a one-day in-school suspension.

Three students alerted school officials about noon that others were planning the first-floor demonstration.

The sit-in started after the 1:40 p.m. bell. When school officials began writing up stragglers, most students proceeded to class.

But police said one group became disruptive, using profanity, banging on the school office doors and knocking over trash cans. It was then that the chemical spray was used.

Pritchett and Manual Principal Kenneth Poole said if students' concerns were valid, they would be willing to adjust passing times, which vary from four to seven minutes, depending on the school. The issue will be discussed with the school's Student Council.


And..For the grown-ups out there, we didn't forget you!

New non-lethal weapon lets troops microwave hostile crowds

GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT.COM
Thursday, February 3, 2005

The United States has developed a non-lethal microwave(?) weapon for use in Iraq.

Is it me or have we always been warned that a Microwave was VERY lethal?


Officials said the vehicle, termed Sheriff, would contain the Active Denial System. The system uses millimeter-wave electromagnetic energy that can be directed at targets at a range of 1 kilometer.
The ADS system would be downgraded for Iraqi deployment in urban areas, officials said. The ADS causes the skin to burn, causing the people to run away.

The Pentagon plans to install the non-lethal, high-powered microwave weapon on a military vehicle. The deployment of the first platforms in Iraq would take place in September 2005.


"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
-- Hermann Goering, at the Nuremberg trials

 

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