reply to post by pd417
Well, while I respect your opinion, I disagree about your suggestion that we are paranoid. Yes, a lot of this thread is speculation of what this could
all lead to, but it's not necessarily paranoia.
Paranoia is when someone is convinced that someone is going to come after them, personally. I don't think any of us are worried about that. Informed
concern is someone looking at recent events and saying "Hey, this is a violation of the constitution. Why isn't anyone concerned with this, and what
could it lead to?" Then there is ardent passion for preserving the principles upon which our country was founded.
Passion should never be confused with paranoia. Were early American revolutionaries paranoid about England's policies of "taxation without
representation?" No. It was happening right in front of them. They could have ignored it and looked the other way and said "Well, it's not such a
big deal. What's a simple tea tax? Don't get paranoid about it....it won't necessarily lead to anything else." But instead, they got angry because
it was wrong. And the anger created the passion to defend their way of life and say "no more." Thus, the revolution began and America was born.
However, I may be missing the bigger picture. You say that this is nothing. Is this practice common at your unit....for MP's to train with civilian
officers by observing? If so, then how often does this occur? And when was the last time? Is there a protocol and an official history for this type of
military-civilian joint training in the past ? If so, I would really like to know if I am blowing this out of proportion.
If you can tell me of specific protocols and policies for joint military-civilian police training on U.S. soil, or if you can give specific dates and
examples of this happening in the past, that would be evidence that this is indeed nothing. Seriously...I can admit when I'm wrong.
However, if there isn't a history for this type of "police training by observation", and if this is new..... it could be something important. It
could be a sign of a story behind the headlines, or it could be a sign of something more to come.
I will tell you an example of something that happened at MY work, for example. I work in a hospital and back in 2006 we had a en entire medical unit
come into the hospital to observe us for a day. In my 15 years as a medical professional, in many different hospitals in areas all around the country,
it was the only time I EVER saw that happen, or heard of that happening in a hospital.
We all had lunch together and I asked the guys why they were there. Most of them said "just normal routine training" but one of the guys in the
medical unit told me that they were observing us because there was word that "something big was coming down the line" and made a reference to recent
actions by North Korea. Made sense to me at the time, because I had never seen that happen before. It wasn't illegal, just out of the ordinary.
(Also, just an FYI, the military guys came to our work to observe us dressed in regular scrubs, not in military scrubs or military uniforms. It was
very low key. If the marines were just there to observe the CHP, why did they dress to stand out from the regular police?)
So, I guess my thinking is that if the marines are going into the civilian world to observe how the "real world" (police) works, on their turf, then
maybe there is word, once again, that something big is coming down the line.
Either that, or maybe they are trying to establish a military presence...to get us used to seeing them at checkpoints....little by little.
[edit on 19-12-2008 by nikiano]