In wake of riots, policing takes a militarized turn
Fortress policing at odds with calls to ‘defund’
Sheaths of chain-link fencing topped by barbed wire is “not a pretty sight” in downtown Minneapolis, conceded Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson.
Around the courthouse, a large outer perimeter and a more restrictive inner core serve as the centerpiece of an elaborate effort to secure the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, accused in the murder of George Floyd.
The security plan known as Operation Safety Net, Hutchinson said, was drawn in part from law enforcement’s extraordinary show of force after the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol – including the swath of iron fencing and strategically placed armored vehicles.
“Jan. 6 changed everything,” the sheriff said. “We just could not let that happen here.”
A new assault, which left one officer dead last week when a vehicle rammed a barricade, reignited a debate over more extreme security measures in Washington. Three months after the Capitol riot, some of the hardest lessons learned in the wake of the insurrection
are applied by law enforcement authorities across the country.
After the Capitol attack Jan. 6., officials in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Olympia, Washington; Lansing, Michigan; and other state capitals similarly fortified their defenses to guard against potentially violent demonstrations timed to the presidential inauguration. Some of those measures remain in place, including in Pennsylvania where heavily armed officers in tactical gear patrol the three main entrances to the Capitol.
“There is no more important lesson that has been drawn from what happened in Washington than the need to be prepared,” said Troy Thompson, a spokesman for the state Department of General Services, which includes the 100-officer Capitol police force. “You can’t be caught off guard.”
The heavy level of preparation has fueled concerns of a law enforcement overreaction resulting in increased reliance on paramilitary tactics that escalated tensions during last summer’s protests prompted by the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans.
“What happened on Jan. 6 is being looked at closely by police chiefs across the country who could be faced again with managing large demonstrations,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. “I don’t think any community wants to see police dressed up like soldiers. But they also want to be prepared.
“There is a new dynamic,” Wexler said. “Police are viewing any kind of demonstration as having the potential of going from largely peaceful to a riotous mob. Now, they are going to err on the side of having too many resources.”
‘The wrong plan’
Evaluations of law enforcement’s preparation and response to the Capitol riot depicted cascading failures of intelligence sharing, training and equipping officers who were overrun by an armed mob bent on halting the confirmation of President Joe Biden’s election win.
“We all believed that the plan met the threat; we all now know we had the wrong plan,” former House sergeant-atarms Paul Irving told a joint Senate investigating committee in February.
Within weeks of that testimony, retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore delivered a report recommending a transformation of the Capitol Police force marked by the addition of hundreds of officers and analysts and a more robust and streamlined partnership with the District of Columbia National Guard.
Though proposals for greater military involvement loomed large in the report, former Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer, a member of Honore’s task force, said considerable attention was focused on “striking a balance” that would not accentuate an onerous security presence in public spaces when unnecessary.
“It is an ongoing and never-ending conversation that police agencies across the country are having when faced with the question of how to manage public demonstrations that can go bad,” he said.
Gainer said some of the most crucial proposals – improving intelligence collection and boosting staffing and training – could go far to ease reliance on heavy military involvement.
“The Hill,” the former chief said, referring to the Capitol’s location, “is a community of 30,000 overseen by a whole world watching. What message do we want to send?”
Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the country, said he had no objections to a more direct relationship between the National Guard and Capitol Police as long as the association offered more protection for Capitol officers.
“I don’t know anybody arguing against the involvement of the military if it’s going to provide for officer safety,” Pasco said.
Guardian vs. Warrior
Before last summer – when military helicopters buzzed protesters in Washington, and federal agents scooped up suspects in unmarked vehicles during demonstrations in Portland, Oregon – there was Ferguson, Missouri.
In 2014, days and nights of rioting that followed the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black man, were accompanied by law enforcement’s paramilitary-like response.
Street scenes of officers dressed in camouflage, armed with heavy weapons and deployed in armored vehicles appeared ripped from a battlefield, not an American city.
The Ferguson response prompted such a backlash that the Obama administration banned the distribution of some military surplus equipment to police. The policy was rolled back during the Trump administration.
A presidential study group formed in 2015 after Ferguson, known as the 21st Century Policing Task Force, seized on the paramilitary tactics used by police as often more provocative than pacifying, saying those methods threatened to undermine community trust in law enforcement.
“Law enforcement culture should embrace a guardian – rather than a warrior – mindset to build trust and legitimacy both within agencies and with the public,” the task force concluded. “Law enforcement cannot build community trust if it is seen as an occupying force coming in from outside to rule and control the community.”
Laurie Robinson, a former assistant attorney general who co-chaired the policing task force, said law enforcement’s approach to major security events “needs to be a balanced one.”
“It requires a careful assessment of what police are facing to minimize the appearance of a military operation that can undermine civilian trust,” said Robinson, a professor of criminal justice at George Mason University.
Robinson said the heavy security presence in Minneapolis is probably appropriate given the community tensions less than a year removed from the rioting that followed Floyd’s death.
Minneapolis authorities face a “very difficult situation,” Robinson said, especially Police Chief Medaria Arradondo who is helping to manage the security operation made necessary by the trial of one of his former officers.
“The police chief may have the toughest job in America right now,” Robinson said.
‘We need peace to do justice’
The courthouse where Chauvin stands trial is a modern-day castle: surrounded by concentric rings of concrete barriers, razor-wire and tall metal fences.
Camouflaged men carrying semiautomatic rifles patrol the inner perimeter from the building’s parapets, Humvees and other military vehicles parked below. Members of the Minnesota National Guard work alongside police officers; it’s hard to tell them apart from a distance because they are sometimes dressed so similarly.
Vehicles entering the compound are screened by law enforcement or soldiers peering from slits in the fence, adorned with signs that say “You are welcome here” and list a long series of prohibited items and conduct.
“The fencing and the military presence does not feel welcoming,” said Trahern Crews, a leader of Black Lives Matter Minnesota.
Crews said the security measures stand in stark contrast to the lax precautions taken before the Capitol riot Jan. 6, when mostly white people attacked Congress.
“I feel it’s racist and a waste of money that could be used for housing the homeless or year-round youth employment,” he said.
Sheriff Hutchinson, part of a coalition of local, state and federal law enforcement officials involved in the security planning, makes no apologies for extraordinary precautions.
He acknowledged the “delicate balance” necessary to secure both public safety and free speech rights of demonstrators.
“We have to make sure the trial goes on without issues,” Hutchinson said. “We need peace to do justice.”