These days, living in the United States and having a questioning mind is becoming more and more hazardous, forcing many of us to consider our options as to where we might want to spend the next few years. While no country is perfect, it is the continuous erosion of rights that has made many Americans look at options available in living abroad, because the increasing militarization of the police forces has frightening fascist overtones. There are more Americans afraid of their own government today than there ever have been… and justifiably so!

Meanwhile, all around the world, people are taking to the streets in protest of their governments. From Greece to Chile, from the UK to the US, anger and social networking have brought people out of their living rooms and into the public square in ever-increasing numbers. On October 15, the worldwide “Occupy” movement gathered people together for protests large and small in hundreds of cities throughout the world, with the most massive turnouts occurring in Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Chile. These protests often end up in violent clashes with government forces that range from police officers who are trigger-happy with their pepper spray to militarized riot police wielding an armory of “non-lethal” weaponry aggressively moving to corral the dissidents and disperse the crowds. The dramatic images hark back to that time of violence and civil unrest in the United States that was the 1960’s.

A Brief History of Police Militarization in the United States