- Between weeks 8 and 12, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
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Radil, Steven M. (04/03/2017). “Geographies of U.S. Police Militarization and the Role of the 1033 Program”. The Professional geographer (0033-0124), 69 (2), p. 203.
Radil’s piece provides yet another example of the materially felt effects of US militarization, this time discussing the the change that US law enforcement has undergone throughout the 21st century. This shift towards a far more intensely equipped and aggressive standard across police forces throughout the United States is far more visible than other examples that I have discussed in previously citations in past logs. Specifically, the Ferguson riots are discussed due to their massive television and the reporting that surrounded them, which called attention to the tactics of the local police who were outfitted in garb and weaponry that was essentially indistinguishable from a military force to the common person. I really liked the statistics offered by the piece as well, as specific percentage increases in a variety of different equipments are offered, showing the mass proliferation of increasingly militarized police forces in the latter half of the 21st century. This piece will serve me well as it congrats well with the rather insidious, latent culture shaping features of militarization, with this example instead being explicit. I also believe I will be able to tie this piece in nicely with the idea of fear and deterrence of the unknown threat which are communicated justifications from state shot calls that justify these sort of changes in our nations police forces.
2. Hall, Abigail R., and Christopher J. Coyne. “The militarization of U.S. domestic policing.” Independent Review, vol. 17, no. 4, 2013, p. 485+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.bowdoin.edu/apps/doc/A326130738/ITOF?u=brun62796&sid=ITOF&xid=ce8f9327. Accessed 30 Apr. 2019.
Hall and Coyne’s piece also speaks to the militarization of US domestic policy, but takes a more historical perspective, dating all the way back to the post-Revolutionary war and then through the Cold War, which will potentially yield my paper a better basis from which I can discuss the significant changes that have occurred in the 21st century. There is also a more theory based offering in this paper which again will help me develop my own strength of argument in my paper. The idea of consent and the necessary acceptance of state intervention in the life’s of its citizens to promote an efficient society operating at optimal levels is discussed. This is particularly interesting as the majority of my sources describe how this process occurs relatively unnoticed and in fact, the sort of patriotism and blind acceptance for the US military hegemony has actually turned to the complete opposite side of the spectrum within public perception, where admiration and appreciation far outweigh skepticism. I believe some of my sources that touch on the militarization of the movie industry and other commercial arenas most aptly express this shift.
I feel as my paper is ready to go. I will look to begin writing by the end of the week.