Since this is getting some more attention, I have an update: I may have discovered the origins of the myth that it’s a fundamental principle of American democracy that militaries aren’t involved in policing.
It has to do w 1) the conflation of “military” w “federal” and 2) the British hatred of all things French.
Research on the origins of professional policing makes clear that a main reason the UK avoided the centralized police model was bc it was French. The UK did introduce professional metropolitan police, but left all other policing to the old local sheriff/neighborhood watch model.
The US copied the UK model in the mid-19th c: only cities had professional police; rural areas remained on the sheriff/posse model. This differed from the French model, in that all French police were professional, the rural ones under central state rather than local authority.
Several British and American commentators claimed that, to be democratic, law enforcement had to be under local, rather than central control. By transitive logic, as the military was under federal control, its use in law enforcement could not be democratic.
In short, this attitude had nothing to do w the idea that militaries should be directed externally or whatnot. It had to do w the fact that many (shockingly, mostly the same ppl who thought secession was cool) thought the federal govt shouldn’t have any hand in law enforcement
This is a big thing in comparative civ-mil studies still, bc of the issue of what local vs distant forces are willing to do.
In theory, distant forces are more useful for oppressive tyrants bc they have no relationship w the locals and will ergo be happy to oppress them.
In theory, distant forces are more useful for oppressive tyrants bc they have no relationship w the locals and will ergo be happy to oppress them.
HOWEVER, the US history of domestic use of federal force is at least partly a story of the intervention of neutral federal forces in situations where local law enforcement/militia *were* the oppressors.
I’m fairly certain (though not far enough in my research to be 100% sure) that the persistence of this “the military can’t do law enforcement” narrative is actually a small part of the larger lost cause narrative, or a general anti-federalist stance.
Again: my point is NOT that there are no issues or problems w using the fedrl mil for law enforcement. Esp. As the military has become more specialized, there are all kinds of valid concerns. Point is that they absolutely are an available federal tool, and are so for a reason.
Anyway, I don’t mean to imply that I discovered something no one else knew - just that I’ve wondered for ages where this weird juxtaposition comes from, of fairly regular use of the mil for law enforcement, alongside a widespread popular narrative that Americans Don’t Do That.
On a separate point, remember how I said the 1877 labor strikes had something to do w Repub willingness to pass the PCA? There were a couple of issues involved there ...
For the Army, a big issue was confusing chains of command. Often, when they were called to help out, they weren’t sure whether they shld follow the orders of the local gov’t official, the local federal marshal, the Army chain of command, or what.
For the Army, the significance of the PCA was that it clarified chains of command. Local officials, even Marshals, couldn’t order them around; they took orders only from their own chain of command, going up to the Secy of War. The military very much appreciated this.
Also, PCA was a rider on the Army approps bill. Dems had tried for years to pass it as a rider, and Rs had resisted, but evtlly the pressure from multiple directions was enough that the Rs passed it.
I’m massively oversimplifying this story, but the approps aspect is important.
I’m massively oversimplifying this story, but the approps aspect is important.
P.s. an astute reader said he’d been told the PCA forbade the mil from surveillance of US citizens on US soil and that I hadn’t mentioned it in my list of statutory constraints. That’s cuz my rsrch on domestic mil intel has been separate & I forgot 😁: https://t.co/4emYcBBfKS
