I want to buy a Blackwater t-shirt now and take a picture of myself crossing the border of Mexico and see what rumors fly.

If you knew anything about “Blackwater” you would of course know that it is now Xe. Soo lets call it Xe. The people who go through Xe training are some of the most highly trained individuals that you will come across. Most of them of are Ex special forces, or Ex law enforcement agents seeking a bit higher pay.

You have only heard of Xe in junction to Iraq. See what other conflicts they are involved in.

And no they don’t have immunity for their actions.

Xe..aka Blackwater… is only known for the misshaps that happen, nothing positive about them is ever shown on the media. They are portrayed as war junkies with nothing to lose.

There are many many more private companies working in the Middle East and surprisingly around the world that make Xe’s “atrocities” look like child’s play. The United States government uses Xe because it allows them to carry out missions that would normally not be carried because of “political correctness” or they might not have the amount of neccesary personell in the area capable of carrying out a mission. Sure they might pay them a lot, but Xe’s soldiers have a very combat ready mindset..a mindset that many fresh soldiers do not have. If you were wanting to pass a really tough test and ensure the best results possible, would you higher the lady who just got her teaching degree, or would you higher the Doctor who trained that teacher.

He’s a Disney employee and wears it because he has to.

He’s been to Disneyland.

He purchased it and wears it because he’s a Mickey Mouse fan OR likes the Disney corporation and their practices

He is a bum and found it in the dumpster, and has nothing else to wear.

Now he does leave us guesing about the last one, with his distended coiffure. However we can assume he’s not a bum.

At the very least we are wihin our rights to question the connection, considering the GOP candidate in the last election stated he would deploy US troops in cities to fight this “war on drugs” he would wage upon his constituants.

Legislaters love contractors like Blackwater for several reasons. It gives them an opportunity for kickbacks and corruption they don’t get with the publicly disclosed budgets of police and military. At least more of them. Moreover, it gives hem the ability to implement just stupid or oppressive policies at will, and have little personal accountability for their actions should the poop hit the fan with the results. Maybe it was a bad idea to invade a Muslim country and impose a western political system, and in keeping the people down you have to shoot 17 of them. Hey, Blackwater did it. Our policy wasn’t flawed to begin with.

As Americans we need to know that the people we hire to police our communities, are accountable to their boss.

Ultimately, in a societal way, that is us.

Its a T Shirt People, you can order them on Ebay.

And as for his Uber Side Arm, that people think is a New Plasma Cannon…..Its a Glock Pistol with a tactical light attached…..nothing special.

You guys Kill me……get a life.

I still think they are representative of the larger problem, though. For example, you state that “They train officers whose jobs (and potentially even lives) depend on an extra level of training”

Suggesting that only SWAT officers who are dispatched in selective situations get this training. This is disingenuous. This training is showing up everywhere. Even prison security guards are getting this “shock and awe style training”

The beat cop pulling you over is highly likely to have some of that “elite military training”. This type of training is bad for civilian law enforcement. This is why we see old ladies being tazered on the nightly news and sheriffs stating that “the officers followed proper procedure” because she was mouthy.

Bullshit. This is gung-ho military style law enforcement. This is bad policy and training from the top down.

The other reality is that SWAT is being used more and more for everyday police work. Have a suspect you need to pick up on suspicion? Don’t do it peacefully. Get a no knock warrant and send out the SWAT. Create a dangerous situation where there was none.

In addition, once you trained one group they tend to pass that training on to others. Eventually it becomes standard training for all officers.

Law enforcement self fulfills their own problems, too. The old saying “If you go looking for trouble you’ll find it” is true.

Bottom line, there have been a lot of law enforcement atrocities in the last few years of this new military style of policing. A lot of pets killed, teenagers shot, property vandalized. A lot of speeding tickets turned into deaths. All in the name of “proper procedure“. Never do we see these officers held accountable. The story always ends with “officer on paid leave for 90 days” or somthing to that effect.

Sad truth is that the warrior often finds it hard to find a place in a peaceful society. We need them for our wars but don’t want them in our streets, with guns, harassing our citizens.

Law enforcement might not be the best job for a combat trained warrior. Law enforcement requires more social skills than an ability to survive in combat.

I’ll close with one last thing. I was an MP in the army. I spent an additional 4 years after that in the national guard as an MP. While I agree that stereotyping groups is bad, based on my own experience, I’m going to hold to this statement as being generally true.

“Americas police officers have an us AGAINST them mentality towards the public they are suppose to serve. This mentality is top down.”

I found myself disagreeing with them so often that I changed career paths. Maybe 1 in 1000 actually has the right mentality to be a law officer. At least in my opinion. The rest are on a power trip or so jaded that they forgot what their job description used to be. I found myself feeling empathy for the people and disgust with my fellow officers.

I will never universally condem police officers as a profession. But I will codemn the training they get, the policies they adhere to, and the pre-requisites of the job.

I think we need more psychological reviews of our law officers to determine they are on this career path because they enjoy social services and helping the people. Not because they like guns, violence, adrenaline and power.

Firstly, Blackwater does not conduct routine training of everyday police officers. They train officers whose jobs (and potentially even lives) depend on an extra level of training. And I can only infer from your comment that you have never participated in nor viewed a Blackwater training course which emphasises safety and proper conduct and could equally be argued makes officers using firearms even safer for the greater public.

Making generalisations about all Blackwater staff and contractors and now all police officers is always doomed to fail. Yes, there are bad apples, and the media likes to report on it and we all love to listen to the scandals. But day to day operations which result positively 99% of the time are rarely mentioned and therefore ignored by the masses who arrogantly judge people they have never met, operating in situations they could say how they would react in based merely on clips from CNN, ABC or FOX.

The fact is that any police officer that decides to use excessive force due to a prior bad experience with another civilian should be condemned for grouping the 2 individuals in the same category regardless of cause. Moreover, any civilian who decides to condemn a police officer or any other person based on a stereotype or the action of another officer should be condemned for doing exactly the same thing. And you sir are doing exactly that.

Policing is often a dangerous job requiring officers to deal with dangerous situations involving the worst our society has to offer. They have a duty to protect others and a right to protect themselves while carrying out their duties. We do not live in a world of sunshine and gumdrops and to imply that the world would be a safer place if police were unarmed, or perhaps worse, if they weren’t properly trained in handling firearms is ludicrous.

Please note that I do not dispute the courtesy and respect that should still be afforded to the average citizen.

I understand that police officers should be held to a higher level of accountability and should be punished more severely than a normal citizen for any infractions they commit. However, holding them to an unrealistic, impossible standard and ignoring the fact they are human is by no means any solution either.

The more us for them cannot be taught by textbook nor in a classroom. It can only be gained through daily interactions with people who provide mutual respect for one another. Unfortunately, by universally condemning police officers’ actions you are in some ways justifying the us against them perspective that some police officers may hold.

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I think this is actually a large part of the problem. They (our law agencies) are being trained by warriors and killers to do warrior and killer activities intended for the enemies they face in warfare. Military training.

The problem is that there is no enemy for them to face here. Just peaceful free citizens. All their training is complete overkill and, frankly, immoral for use in most non war situations.

None of that military training is conducive to policing free America citizens. They essentially turn Andy Griffiths into a gang of armed thugs who harass citizens for money.

Instead of picking up a suspect peacefully, law groups that have this type of training look for every opportunity to use that “elite training”. They force dangerous situations that are not necessary just to get their adrenaline jollies off.

No sir. These people are not doing the world any good. I’d rather see police officers getting more community service training than elite combat training. More us for them training instead of us against them training.