Gene Healy on Ferguson and Dystopian Military Toys

Through the fog of Twitter, it’s difficult
to discern the precise details of what’s been happening
in Ferguson, Mo., in the 10 days of protests spurred by the
police killing of an unarmed teenager. Last week, writes Gene
Healy, I found myself musing darkly, “Just wait till Ferguson’s
cops get federally funded drones.” If you think paramilitary
policing looks dystopian now, just wait till you see what’s
being cooked up in defense contractors’ labs. It’s bad: From
“puke sabers” to “pain rays” Homeland Security and
the Pentagon maintain a keen interest in developing
crowd-control weapons for occupations at home and abroad. It’s no
accident that technology developed for population control in
foreign counterinsurgencies is being turned inward — in fact, it’s
been a matter of deliberate federal policy. But it’s not too late
to reverse the slide.

View this article.