The White House may paint worries over drones in American skies, federal agencies buying up billions of bullets and local police forces arming themselves with military-style equipment as just “bogeyman” issues of the radical right, but an interview on New York City’s WABC Radio reveals even the left is starting to grow worried.
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, a left-wing “peace and social justice movement” known for its colorful marches and protests, told WABC host Aaron Klein the potential for the Obama administration to abuse its growing domestic police power is “extremely troubling.”
Klein asked Benjamin, author of “Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control,” if she was concerned that military-style drones now authorized to fly over U.S. skies could be used against American citizens, the same question that prompted U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to filibuster in the Senate earlier this month.
“Very much so,” Benjamin replied. “We see a militarization of the U.S. police forces here in the United States, and it’s a very troubling tendency.”
Furthermore, Benjamin charged she was “upset” that liberal Democrats – who might question and fight the federal government’s growing police powers under a Republican administration – “have been very quiet when this is happening under Obama.”
Klein brought up concerns, such as those reported by WND, that the federal Department of Homeland Security and other non-military federal agencies have opened purchase orders for 1.5 billion or more rounds of ammunition over the last year. The ammo buy has been only one of several indications of a bigger, stronger and more militarized police presence in the U.S.
“Are we leading up to some sort of military-style control in America?” Klein asked.
“I think the potential is there,” Benjamin replied, “and the fact that 10 years after 911 the U.S. is still keeping the American people in the state of fear about terrorism and using that to take billions and billions of our tax dollars to use to set up these kind of facilities and equip our local law-enforcement agencies with military equipment and potentially really be turning us into a society where Big Brother is watching us all the time, I think is extremely troubling.”
The full interview with Benjamin can be heard below:
[jwplayer i9NZoxVd]