Beware of using the military for law enforcement

Here is a disturbing trend. Since at least 2002, incoming vice president Joe Biden has advocated that U.S. troops be given authority to arrest civilians here at home. Since at least 2006, incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has pushed the ideas of “universal civilian service” and of a “U.S. Public Service Academy” whose graduates would “commit to spending five years serving their nation by working in public institutions in health care, law enforcement, [and] emergency management.” Finally, last July, Barack Obama called for “a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the regular military.

What’s disturbing here is that in different ways, both the outgoing Bush administration and the incoming Obama regime seem deaf to warnings from observers across the political spectrum against large, centrally controlled military or military-like “security forces” for use within U.S. borders. Those warnings were renewed earlier this month when it was reported that the Pentagon plans by 2011 to station 20,000 active-duty troops within the country to respond to large-scale catastrophes or terrorist attacks. Specially trained to handle chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attacks, this force has been in planning stages for several years. On the surface, creation of such a military unit might appear as a welcome development that will improve efficiency, order, and humanitarian aid in an emergency. But why couldn’t National Guard units be trained to provide the same capability, especially since guardsmen have a long and distinguished history of responding to domestic emergencies and disasters?

Critics justifiably worry that both a civilian “security force” as described by Obama and a full-time professional military force devoted solely to domestic anti-terrorist and natural disaster operations would inevitably undermine the spirit and principles of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which is one of the few statutory bulwarks of civil liberties that is arguably as important as any of the protections in the Bill of Rights. Posse Comitatus severely restricts the role of the military in domestic law enforcement, thus ensuring that citizens will be safe from undue use of deadly force. Given the reality that government programs inevitably grow more powerful and expensive over time, the Pentagon and the incoming Obama administration should re-examine their plans and tread very carefully. Once civil liberties are lost, they can be awfully difficult to re-establish.