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Militarization of police involves the use of military equipment and tactics by law enforcement officers. This includes the use of armored personnel carriers, assault rifles, submachine guns, flashbang grenades,〔The flash from a flashbang grenade detonation momentarily activates all photoreceptor cells in the eye, making vision impossible for approximately five seconds, until the eye restores itself to its normal, unstimulated state. The loud blast is meant to cause temporary loss of hearing, and also disturbs the fluid in the ear, causing loss of balance. The concussive blast of the detonation can still injure, and the heat created can ignite flammable materials.〕 grenade launchers,〔Texas Rangers, Department of Public Safety, (Branch Davidian Evidence ), Investigative Report No. 1, September 1999; Investigative Report No. 2, January 2000 (PDFs available at Texas Rangers website). The Rangers found that the FBI used grenade launchers to fire two 40 mm M651 grenades. The Army considers the M651 a pyrotechnic device and that it is known to cause fires. The Army Tech Manual for the M651 warns that it can penetrate 3/4" plywood at 200 meters and "projectile may explode upon target impact." During inventory of the Waco evidence the Texas Rangers also found flashbang grenades.〕 sniper rifles, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams, intelligence agency-style information gathering aimed at the public and political activists, and a more aggressive style of law enforcement. Criminal justice professor Peter Kraska has defined militarization of law enforcement as "the process whereby civilian police increasingly draw from, and pattern themselves around, the tenets of militarism and the military model." Observers have noted the militarizing of the policing of protests.〔press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo21636470.html〕〔america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/.../senate-police-militarization.html〕 Since the 1970s, riot police have fired at protesters using guns with rubber bullets or plastic bullets.〔http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plastic+bullet "A solid PVC cylinder, 10 cm long and 38 mm in diameter, fired by police or military forces to regain control in riots."〕 Tear gas, which was developed for riot control in 1919, is widely used against protesters in the 2000s. The use of tear gas in warfare is prohibited by various international treaties〔e.g. the Geneva Protocol of 1925: 'Prohibited the use of "asphyxiating gas, or any other kind of gas, liquids, substances or similar materials"'〕 that most states have signed; however, its law enforcement or military use for domestic or non-combat situations is permitted. Concerns about the militarization of police have been raised by both ends of the political spectrum in the United States, with both the right-of-center/libertarian CATO Institute and the left-of-center American Civil Liberties Union voicing criticisms of the practice. The Fraternal Order of Police has spoken out in favor of equipping law enforcement officers with military equipment, on the grounds that it increases the officers' safety and enables them to protect civilians. ==Canada== Canadian legal expert Michael Spratt wrote, "... there’s no question that Canadian police sometimes look more like post-apocalyptic military mercenaries than protectors of the peace. Our police services have been acquiring more and more military toys — a dangerous trend that’s gotten little in the way of critical analysis in the mainstream media." Growing numbers of Canadian police agencies have acquired armored vehicles in recent years. In 2010 the Ottawa Police Service bought a Lenco G3 BearCat armored personnel carrier for $340,000, which has "half-inch-thick military steel armoured bodywork, .50 caliber-rated ballistic glass, blast-resistant floors, custom-designed gun ports and... a roof turret."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Canadian Police Militarization )〕 The G20 protests in Toronto in 2010 showed that the militarization of protest policing is not only occurring in the United States. Police used a sound cannon, or Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) -- a weapon that was developed for use in conflicts in the Middle East, as well as barricades, pre-emptive arrests and riot units.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Canadian police agencies: Innovators in militarization? )〕 According to Kevin Walby, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Winnipeg, "the more interesting aspect of the militarization of the police is actually on the strategy side"; police are "increasingly training with military-style tacticians, especially when it comes to situations like crowd control and, increasingly, surveillance." In June 3, 2015 it was reported that "RCMP officers have started openly carrying () submachine guns on Parliament Hill as part of a visible increase to Parliament Hill security following last October’s terrorist attack" in 2014.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Mounties now toting submachine guns for Hill security )〕 Conservative senator Vern White, a former RCMP officer and a former Ottawa police chief states that "...some RCMP officers guarding Parliament Hill against potential terrorist attacks should be armed with rifles similar to those carried by Canadian troops in Afghanistan ()" the "...more powerful Colt C8 (is ) popular with police tactical teams and Canadian and other NATO alliance troops." White argues that the C8 carbines would give officers a much longer shooting range than the short-barreled MP-5 submachine guns. "The RCMP is issuing more than 2,200 C8 carbines to its officers ()" but the RCMP has not indicated whether the C8s will be issued to Parliament Hill officers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Boost firepower of Mounties guarding Parliament Hill, says senator )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Militarization of police」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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