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Domestic Militarization

Domestic militarization includes of a number of factors: weapon manufacturers, militaristic research and development (i.e. technological advancement for the formation of underground sensors and infrared scopes at use in the U.S.-Mexico border region), high numbers of peoples in prisons, anti-crime laws (i.e. Juvenile Justice Initiative in California, which is discussed below), powerful weapons (i.e. military rifles used by Border Patrol agents and semi-automatic weapons used by the police), and construction of a target or enemy. The fear of crime, a basis for many political campaigns, fuels the rationale for more police, more surveillance laws, and a tough-on-crime attitude. Youth of color who are poor are conceptualized as the target because of political campaigns coupled with racist media depictions of youth.

Police systems throughout the United States have recently received public condemnation by some members of Congress and residents in the United States due to extensive internal corruption, excessive shootings and brutality, and racial profiling. Despite extensive criticism, police units are being accessed for prospective security guards at predominately poor middle schools and high schools located in urban areas with a predominately youth of color student body. For example, the New York City Department of Education supported legislation to employ the New York Police Department with providing security at public schools.2 The hiring of police departments to monitor school grounds contributes to the formation of a police state in schools.

The police state in schools is further implemented with the recent development of police and military academies replacing high schools in districts, which are 70% - 95% people of color. For example, in 1996 in Los Angeles, California, the Los Angeles Unified School District opened its first out of five “Junior Police Academy Magnet Schools.”3 With regards to military academies, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on July 8, 2001 the opening of a military charter school in Oakland, California.4 The nearly two hundred middle school youth planning to attend Oakland Military Institute prepared by participating in a two-week “boot camp” at the California National Guard.5 The Oakland Military Institute opens in the Fall 2001 at a former Oakland Army Base.6 Currently, the student population breakdown is the following: 1/3 of the entire group are female; 70% of the entire group is African American, 20% of the group is Latino, and the remaining members of the group are Asian Americans and whites. The majority of the students are from Oakland, with some students from nearby vicinities and other states.7 Many of the platoon sergeants will serve as mentors or teacher’s aides during the academic school year.

The INS is an institution under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice that also interacts and impacts youth in the United States. With an increasing military presence in its enforcement strategies, the INS has influenced the domestic militarization issue. The INS conducts raids throughout the United States that results in the separation of children from parents, racial targeting, scapegoating, and human rights violations. An October 1998 report on INS raids noted the following findings (partial list):8

• Raids violate constitutional and civil rights.
• Raids destabilize families.
• Raids do not significantly impact migration patterns. INS raids have a damaging impact on youth, especially those youth born in the United States with undocumented immigrant parents. INS raids separate families and impact youth due to the loss of a parent or parents. For example, on December 2, 1997, in Brewster, Washington, the INS conducted a raid at the Brewster Heights Packing Plant, arresting 45 workers, most of whom were women. Approximately 40 students at the Brewster Elementary School lost a parent due to the raid. According to the elementary school counselor, “I don’t think there was a classroom that didn’t have a child that lost a parent…There were lots of sad eyes in the school the next day.”

Next: Public Policies Targeting and Impacting Youth

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Footnotes
2 Davis, Nicole. Winter 2000. “School ground or Police State?” ColorLines Magazine. Volume 2, Number 4: 15.
3 An obstacle course at the school is modeled after the Los Angeles Police Department’s own course and some of the teachers are LAPD officers.
4 May, Meredith. 2001. “Jerry Brown's military coup/'Boot camp' preps students for Oakland's new charter school, opening in fall despite its detractors.” San Francisco Chronicle, July 8. During the two-week training phase, youth were awoken by 4:30 a.m., wore uniforms, marched to their meals, and addressed adults with hands behind their backs. Thirty-six students quit the two-week intensive military type training. During the school year, students will be required to show up in uniform at 7:30 a.m. for six days per week.
5 Their day begins with military drills and ceases at 6 p.m. after a full day of classes. A National Guard brigadier is the school’s superintendent.
6 According to the July 8, 2001 San Francisco Chronicle, this school is the first of its kind in unifying the military with school classes.
7 Mayor Brown sent out 4,000 letters to sixth-graders in the public school system of Oakland.
8 For a copy of Portrait of Injustice, the INS Raids report, please contact the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

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