February 8, 2012

Is Cambridge Militarizing Its Police?

"The Smart Policing Initiative [. . .] grant will allow the CPD to coordinate with the Everett Police department, the Somerville Police Department, and the research firm Justice & Security Strategies to 'prevent cross-jurisdictional violent crime' and improve policing strategies." This does not sound very smart. How many visitors to Cambridge from Somerville and from Everett come for nefarious purposes, compared with visitors from Boston, Watertown, Arlington or Medford? Did Cambridge police obtain taxpayer funds through political connections (what else is there) to waste it? Could the money be better used by other jurisdictions, dare I say, in a smarter way. Shellei E. Solomon, CEO, and Craig Uchida, President of Justice and Security Strategies worked for the Department of Defense to participate in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference. Is Cambridge militarizing its police to fight civilians as if they are terrorists? Gordon A. Aoyagi worked on "Y2K planning and readiness." How did that work out? Researcher Christine Connor has "experience with drug-related homicides among the Latino population." Is that a problem in Cambridge, where police deny gangs exist? Is it ethnic profiling?

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/2/8/cambridge-police-get-grant/

Cambridge Police Gets Grant to Improve Crime Prevention
By Amy Friedman,
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Published: Wednesday, February 08, 2012

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http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/02/08/lapd-pioneers-high-tech-crime-fighting-war-room/

LAPD Pioneers High-Tech Crime-Fighting ‘War Room’

CBS News Los Angeles CA

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