Missouri police greet Nobel Peace Prize nominee with traditional shield-banging dance

Here we see the traditional dance of the Missouri riot police, performed for three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly and her friends as they gathered at the Whiteman Air Force Base to protest the escalation of drone warfare. The rhythmic shuffle and banging makes for an impressive display, especially when accompanied by the dancers' ancestral garb and clubs.

Trifecta Resista at Whiteman AFB.m4v (Thanks, kcmiccheck!)

• [angusm]

  It’s like Missouri’s own version of the haka. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haka

  I do hope some cultural anthropologists are studying this unique and beautiful ritual.

  • [The Life Of Bryan]

    Purely in the interest of research, I showed that video to a cultural anthropologist that I keep on hand for such purposes. She had never before seen the dance of that tribe, and her reaction was… less than fully respectful of their cultural norms.

    • [Preston Sturges]

      But have they proved their manhood by being ritually circumsized with a sharp flint?

  • [billstewart]

     Yeah, hope the local police don’t pepper spray those haka dancers the way Utah’s police did.

• [Brainspore]

  This dance is traditionally performed to pay homage to the “Thunderbird” (also known colloquially as the “General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper”).

  • [Ultan]

     I read that at first as “gay homage”. Well, either way.

• [Justin Forposting]

  well, that’s a “step up” from tear gas.   

  • [Guest]

    more like one. step. away.

• [Ralidius]

  Take note of how tradition mandates only the most extreme of douche bags take part of the lineup. A true “honor”.

  • [chimusicguy]

    Air Force Military Police and Security Police are not douche bags. They have written a blank check, up to and including their life, to pay for these folks’ freedom, and yours. I am absolutely humbled they are standing there.

    • [theophrastvs]

       yeah!  they should be replaced by drones so that their lives aren’t at risk.  (dancing drones!)

    • [novium]

      That’s some classic trolling there, mr. first time poster.

    • [Bearpaw01]

      Yes, it’s very brave of them to put their lives on the line to protect America from nonviolent protesters.

    • [Ihavenofuckingname]

       Yes they are.

    • [DrunkenOrangetree]

      It’s been a long time since anybody in the military paid for my freedom.

    • [SomeGuyNamedMark]

       Yes, smacking their fellow citizens is paying for our freedom.  I didn’t know their lives were in danger here either.

    • [Antinous / Moderator]

      You seem like you have a lot to be humble about.

    • [Ralidius]

      Not mine. But whatever. You part of said douche bag lineups too?

    • [Genre Slur]

       The Norwegians have the best response to such claims: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r76H62tzrg

  • [The Life Of Bryan]

    It’s not fair to generalize like that. In either direction.

    A lot of cops want to help make society safer and happier, and a lot of cops are sociopathic douchebags. Most police forces, especially in larger cities, have traditionally sought to weed out one in favor of the other. But as that profession does attract both do-gooders and ne’er-do-wells, we would do better to at least realize that the former do exist, rather than universally demonize them all as being the latter.

    All that said, this dance does have a distinctly Truck Nutz sort of vibe to it.

    • [Ihavenofuckingname]

      Sorry, but no self-respecting, non-deluded human being with a functional sense of empathy for his fellow man would join the police.

      It’s in a feedback loop… Has been for years.  The worse the organization gets, the worse the people applying become.  It’s almost hit critical mass.

      • [petertrepan]

        I’ve dealt with respectful police before, and they’re certainly more ethical in general than they were during the civil rights era. But I agree about the feedback loop. It worries me that the show COPS might serve as a recruitment tool.

      • [william shannon]

        It is predominantly poor young people who join the military and police forces not because they do not have self respect but because they have few other options that are readily available to them.  The Uniform, Brotherhood and “Force” replaces for some the powerlessness and illegality of surviving poverty day in and day out. The military puts its soldiers through an intensive brainwashing that instills the lie that they are protecting “our” American freedoms when almost everyone who reads knows that the soldiers are really protecting the freedoms of corporations to profit from natural resources and labor primarily within the Southern Hemisphere and Middle East. Supporting and appealing to the soldiers and police as our brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers could be effective at returning their allegiance to humanity and their sense of identity to their own communities and away from the cold hearted chain of command that leads from the big brass to the world headquarters of the one percent. The Achilles heal of militaristic hierarchies is that as they expand, the loss of chain of command down to troops becomes more likely. There are new tools however with this latest incarnation of our not so nascent police state. When it comes to troops its the psychoactive medications that replace the natural human tendency to doubt and to fear. These urges are replaced with numbness and a literal zombie-like demeanor.

        • [Chipsa]

          I don’t suppose you have any sort of proof that the population of the US military doesn’t roughly correspond to the income distribution of the US (oh wait, you’re going to claim some sort of tangent about the 1% isn’t well represented, because of some bullshit or other, when you don’t have that data). I’m not sure how you can lose a chain of command. It’s not a chain you beat someone with until they understand who’s in command here.

      • [Jeremy Hill]

        Since I have cop friends that fit that description, I’d like to disagree.

        • [Ihavenofuckingname]

          I’m assuming they telecommute.

      • [Nagurski]

         Exactly wrong, for the majority of cops. I have a cop friend, and I have ridden with him and seen him deal with aggressive, desperate, forlorn, and strung out people with grace and empathy. His friends in the local P.D. that I have met are also motivated by a desire to assist and protect. They have to put up with a lot, and have up close dealings some of the worst of society on a daily basis, to the erosion of their peace of mind, and are regularly exposed to dangerous situations.

        Not many of us are willing to  put up with the crap that cops have to. Most of them deserve our respect and thanks. You will call them when things are grim for you personally.

        When cops handle things badly, it can be horrific, and abuse of power by cops is often handled badly by the criminal justice system. Bad cops need to go. Cynical attitudes that all cops are sadistic, emotionally crippled sociopaths also need to go.

        All that said, the tribe depicted above’s overamped, overarmored, overarmed response to unthreatening peace demonstrators is ludicrous. Thank the DHS for pushing this kind of douchebaggery, and local department commanders for buying into it.

        • [Ihavenofuckingname]

           What do you suppose the odds are that they would defy orders if they were instructed to aggressively march on innocent, peaceful protesters?

          And what are the odds they’d come to the defense of an innocent victim when one of their comrades is beating someone with a baton, or using a taser?  Even to the point of using deadly force against the aggressor?

          What are the odds they’d expose the inner workings of their department when illegal and unconstitutional practices become standard operating procedure?

          Zero.

        • [Nagurski]

           What are the odds if you were robbed and beaten down, lying in the street, that you’d dial 911 and pray for the cops and EMTs to get there as soon as possible?

          What are the odds that those first responders would put their lives on the line to protect you if you were still in danger, and save your life by giving prompt professional treatment?

          100%

        • [Antinous / Moderator]

          What are the odds that those first responders would put their lives on the line to protect you if you were still in danger, and save your life by giving prompt professional treatment?

          Do you live in a world with no news media? Setting aside the fact that, if they don’t like your neighborhood, they’re not going to show up for 45 minutes, the news is full of stories of police tasing people who were having health crises, sometimes fatally.

        • [D Wyatt]

          Im tired of the “hard job” defense.  Nobody is standing up for the postal workers and bullied children who go ape-shit saying “well they have a hard job” or “their lives are hard” or “they deal with scum all day”  etc.
          I too (used to) have cop friends, ill be honest, the system has fucked up all my friends who have been through it, PERIOD.

          3 Different lawyer women I knew started out as bright hopeful beautiful young women, 2 are horrible bitches and the other is as down and cynical as they come. 
          2 Different friends joined the police force, their ego’s grew, their power hungry side took over, and now talks about rights turned into “why do I care” “trow da dirtball in the slamma and fuck his wife.”
           2+ friends joined the military, before they went in I asked if they would march against innocent civilians.  After much debate about how “they dont use military on US soil” lol, they said they would never follow such an order against common sense.  NOW the discussions sound more like, I do what Im told, and a lot less like, I think for myself.

          Thats just the WORKERS.

          At least 5+ people I knew including myself have been forced through the dirtiest nastiest part of the system.  The one where they kidnap you and pretend you are a criminal until you pay a lot of money to prove you were innocent the whole time, or you pay even more money if you actually DID COMMIT THE CRIME just to prove the system can be bought and sold.

          My final thought is that the Police should be SKILLD AT DE-ESCALATION, and not ADEPT AT ESCALATION.  They should be taught to Quell their natural instinct to get ADDICTED TO ADRENALINE.  Inner city cops, while they do need to stay focused and alert they also need to stop treating every innocent civilian like crap simply because they find random reasons to think they are better than citizens.  Lastly they need to stop turning away people because their psych exam comes back positive for EMPATHY. 

        • [vertigo25]

          Your response to Ihavenofuckingname neither addresses nor excuses what s/he is even talking about. And sure, most people *would* dial 911 in those cases (not 100% though, I assure you)… that’s the cops fucking job! They’re supposed to protect *us*. Not try to intimidate people exercising their rights. The fact that police forces were set up to supposedly do a necessary job, does not give them license to do what ever the hell they want. It doesn’t make them immune from corruption or abuse of power. And it most certainly does not protect them from criticism. If anything it means that they be held to the absolute HIGHEST standards.

          I live in Oakland, CA. My upstairs neighbor was assaulted in her home and it took the police three hours to respond. Several months ago, someone decided to unload an AK just for kicks. The police NEVER responded and the casings stayed on the sidewalk for two days before I and a neighbor swept them up… the cops didn’t even try to gather evidence to pursue whoever this ass was. And I assure you it was because I live in an area that the cops think is not deserving of response. But a bunch of people gather to protest government and corporate corruption and they show up in force with their armor.

          So, sure… if I were robbed and beaten down, I’d call 911. I wouldn’t hold out much hope that they’d actually… you know… DO anything, though.It’s simple. I don’t care how respectful or ‘good’ or nice any cop has ever been to anyone. To be a cop you have to be an authoritarian and abide by authoritarian policies by the very nature of the job. And the modern police forces all around the world have taken that to an extreme and have done everything they can to avoid answering any criticism, except to defend the horrific actions they often take.In other words, I don’t give a hit if one of these guys HAS put his life on the line to save a kitten from a tree… you go pounding sticks on shields and attempting to intimidate people to prevent them from practicing their rights… you’re an ass.

        • [Nagurski]

           D, I can’t really disagree with anything you’ve said, especially because most of it is your personal experience and undeniably real. I don’t think anyone gets a pass on abusing power or breaking the law because they have a hard job. The point I was trying to make is that it takes a certain amount of self-sacrifice and commitment to serve the community despite that to be a (good) cop.

          I totally agree that cop training is over focused on up-front aggression, especially when it comes to dealing with crowd control.

          I’m sorry your experience in these arenas has been so negative and traumatic.

  • [Katherine McLemore]

    Regardless of what you think of the protesters and how they were treated, it’s pretty low to call them guys douche bags. These guys aren’t here because they hate protesters. They’re not even here because they support the drone strikes being protested. They’re here because they’re DOING THEIR JOBS.

    These aren’t some evil government henchmen. They are young airmen. They are our sons, our brothers, our husbands. (And possibly some daughters, sisters, and wives.) They are doing the jobs they swore to do in service to the United States. Sometimes that means putting their lives on the line overseas, and sometimes it means getting called in to remove protesters who were trespassing on a military base. Regardless of how you feel about the military at large, our soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines deserve your love and respect. 
    Seriously. This is the kind of bullshit that lends credence to the idea that not supporting the war means not supporting the troops. So knock it off. You’re making us all look like…well, douche bags.

    • [James]

      No one deserves respect, it’s earnt. And what they’re doing in the video? That isn’t earning diddly.

    • [Antinous / Moderator]

      They’re here because they’re DOING THEIR JOBS.

      Must. Resist. Temptation.

    • [vertigo25]

      I really hate to be the one who enacts Godwin, here… but… please look up “Superior orders” and “Nuremberg trials.”

    • [saurabh]

      I have a lot more sympathy for soldiers than cops. They’re usually sent into a hostile place they don’t understand, and they’ve been given a picture their whole lives of the nobility of military service, “over there”. Because they are divorced from the society they’re attacking, it seems harder to hold them accountable for understanding and changing what they’re doing to it. And they’re very much the grunts in a hierarchy that uses them up and does not value their lives, that sees them as “dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns”, as Kissinger called them.

      Cops, meanwhile, are a cancerous lesion in a society they are part of. They are an independent force of corruption. They are the front line in prosecuting the class war on the poor and in repressing democratic expression, and they work actively to promote these ends; see Oakland police with regards to actually fighting crime in Oakland compared to rioting against Occupy protesters. They have a lot more autonomy to control their interaction with society. They’re doing their jobs, yes, but they’re the ones who decide how it gets done. Cops invented the riot shield dance, not anyone else.

  • [doomcake]

    You think soldiers are douche bags? I know Air Force MPs and they signed up because they were poor and they wanted to serve their country. They didn’t sign up to deal with protestors and as ridiculous as their dance is they don’t deserve to be called douchebags. Let’s reserve our hatred for the Armed Services Committee and Pentagon, soldiers are just doing the jobs our government tells them to.

• [Nylund]

  I kept expecting Shaka Zulu to come out and lead their charge:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS11Y-lEuP4 

  • [Preston Sturges]

    That dude is scary

  • [Ultan]

    Shaka was clinically psychotic.

    • [Preston Sturges]

      But chicks dig it.

• [Navin_Johnson]

  Christ what toady assholes.

• [Evan G.]

  Not to diminish Kathy Kelly, but “Nobel Peace Prize nominee” is not necessarily the vaunted accomplishment that some may think it is. And, for what it’s worth, the Nobel Foundation restricts the publishing of any nominees for 50 years, so someone’s not playing by the rules!

  http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/nomination/index.html 

  • [justawriter]

    I have to agree with Evan G. Anyone can be nominated for the Peace Prize (and some would argue that after Kissinger, anyone can win the Peace Prize) so Ms. Kelly would be better honored by a short description of the work she is known for.

    • [Bearpaw01]

      True, and it’s worth noting that they’re protesting policies signed off on by a Nobel Peace Prize *winner*.

      • [saurabh]

        Do you mean Obama? The guy who used his Peace Prize speech to talk up more of that “just war” bullshit? President Drone Killer?

        Tom Lehrer said it.

        • [Jonathan Roberts]

          Christopher Hitchens: ‘It would be like giving someone an Oscar in the hope that he would someday make a good motion picture’

      • [Ultan]

        Who is, in fact, a war criminal, a liar, a repeated mass murderer, and an all-round disgrace to humanity.*

        * Edit: Albeit perhaps somewhat marginally arguably less so than the last few disgraces.

        • [Jason Van Glass]

          It’s hardly fair to call Tom Lehrer a war criminal.

    • [BrotherPower]

      “Anyone can be nominated for the Peace Prize…”

      Really?! Well, MY resume is getting a shot in the arm this very evening. Thanks for the tip!

      • [Warren_Terra]

        iirc – and if you care it’s easy to check, I’m just going by my vague recollection here – basically any member of a national legislature and any former winner can nominate anyone they like; some other categories may also apply, but it’s not completely open. So it’s likely you can’t nominate yourself or your neighbor, but if you wanted to you could probably find someone willing to nominate you.

        This was luridly an issue during the massacres in the Balkans, because of all the national legislators with an axe to grind (sometimes literally) and the power to declare someone an official candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

      • [Jason Van Glass]

        You can’t nominate yourself, but pretty much any government official, as well as professors of History, Law, or undefined Social Sciences, as well as past winners, can make a nomination.  http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/nomination/nominators.html

  • [mesocosm]

    I would also note that the drone war is in fact being escalated by Nobel Peace laureate Barack Obama.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/secrecy-defines-obamas-drone-war/2011/10/28/gIQAPKNR5O_story.html

    • [Navin_Johnson]

      I think we’re all hip to that by now….

• [Nylund]

  I think the cops in this video could learn a move or two from these dudes:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU2BC85BTkg 

  • [retepslluerb]

    Or them. Culturally closer, I believe.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QR-7dtPe7g

    • [Donald Petersen]

      I like policemen in tight stockings.

    • [Robert Baruch]

      This one’s even closer.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhJQp-q1Y1s

• [Samsa]

  I too protest drone warfare and hope we can still send legions of actual men and women into battle so that they might die horribly.

  • [Guest]

    Yeah, well, war used to have a moral cost.

    What an improvement it will be to wage war without consequence.

    • [Navin_Johnson]

       And on your own citizens as well.

      • [joeposts]

        Relax guys, once we export the drone technology world-wide, we’ll just be bombing other robots, plus the pot-smoking anarchists next door.

        • [Guest]

          can I borrow a cup of sugar?

        • [saurabh]

          So, I guess we should get to work on the anti-drone tech? Probably like laser-focused EMP cannons?

        • [Martijn Vos]

          No, once we export the drone technology, robots will be bombing both sides, and it ends up as us against Skynet.

      • [Ultan]

         It’s sad that saying “what goes around comes around”  could be seen as a terrorist threat, these days. I sure hope Sasha and Malia don’t end up paying for all the kids their father has had murdered.

        • [Guest]

          Sasha and Malia, in the White House IS it coming around

  • [wysinwyg]

    People don’t die horribly in drone warfare?

    Oh, those people live far away and look and dress differently than we do.  And they’re poor. Carry on.

  • [Brainspore]

    I too protest drone warfare and hope we can still send legions of actual men and women into battle so that they might die horribly.

    Or just massacre those wedding parties in person. Whichever.

    • [Guest]

       maybe guilt is inversely proportionate to distance.

      Which would be weird, since it was always the starving kids on the other side of the planet who wanted for my brussels sprouts

      • [Guest]

        food not bombs

      • [wobinidan]

        You should have called your mom’s bluff.  You should have said “here’s an envelope, mom, and 10 bucks worth of stamps.  Do the right thing, because I won’t, and you are clearly the moral superior”.

        • [Guest]

          I so did.

• [yri]

  Meh. They should bring in a Maori consultant to fierce things up a bit; at least add some yelling. And would it be asking so much to have them stick their tongues out and roll their eyes a little?

  • [Manny]

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eGCsEQ15L4

  • [Manny]

     Oh, even more on point: http://youtu.be/yivsN18ijjM

    • [jowlsey]

       What I wouldn’t give to see those guys in a dance off vs the riot police.

      • [Anon_Mahna]

         well that segwayed into a mental image of a crowd doing the dance from MJ’s Thriller, whilst facing down the  riot police..

• [markbellis]

  ” Over time many individuals have become known as “Nobel Peace Prize Nominees”, but this designation has no official standing.” Wikipedia, Nobel Peace Prize

• [karl knox]

  I think a lot of guys with undiagnosed anger issues join up seeking… catharsis.  You know, just by looking at ‘em, that it’s always the wrong kind of person wielding the billy-club, shield and tear-gas canisters. High-functioning sociopaths.

  • [petertrepan]

    You might say it’s a job for droogs who are now of job age.

• [Manuel Smirnoff]

  What is this? A trailer for the new TV show “Where’s Adolph?”

• [pjk]

  “Riot” police.

• [B E Pratt]

  Sorry, I can’t make a joke here. In fact, I can’t finish watching the vid. It is just too frightening and sad.

• [J. Brad Hicks]

  I felt the weirdest urge, as someone who’s read a lot of social psychology, to stop everything and ask that one guy to take off his non-regulation sunglasses.

  That particular maneuver was designed as an alternative to whacking people over the head, to intimidate them into giving way, and it usually works. But it’s amazing how the context shifts when it’s put to music, it really does make it look a lot less threatening and more ritualized.

  We should be singing more at these protests. I wish Joe Hill were here.

  • [Christopher]

    I wish more people knew who Joe Hill was.

    • [petertrepan]

      You two just enlightened me. Thanks for that!

      • [J. Brad Hicks]

        Oooh! Start here: 
        http://themanwhoneverdied.com/

    • [Ultan]

      Or the meaning of the words to the song “Guantanamera” = “Girl from Guantanamo”. Or the final two verses of “This Land is Your Land”.

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        Or the hexadecimal for the color out of space.

• [GertaLives]

  To be clear, while the whole thing is rather bizarre, these are military police, not really what one would call “Missouri” police. and yeah, I don’t understand exactly what constitutes a Nobel nominee.

• [Mister44]

  On one hand, it is GOOD to have a drilled and disciplined anti-riot squad. You don’t want one idiot starting a wail fest because he gets stick happy.

  On the other hand it looks like complete overkill for the hippies that were there.

  PS Missouri, we can do better, come on!

  PSS: ETA I think they are military police as well.

  • [Donald Petersen]

    I like the fact that the Midwestern protesting hippies of today appear to be the same hippies of yesteryear, only all grown up into a bunch of ordinary Midwestern Moms and Pops.  I think I saw maybe three people under the age of 50.

    Actually, no.  I don’t like that at all.

    • [Ultan]

       The most dangerous ones to the system are not the posing “anarchist” boys, but rather the old Quaker ladies who look like Bruce Sterling, only more conservative.

• [mwiik]

  To see more, the entire movie Zulu is on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOoCrCeHxpI

  • [mwiik]

    Advance to about 1hr 11 min to see the Zulu version.

• [BunnyShank]

   I was so disappointed they didn’t go Maori. I could never resent a police force that were also trained dancers and singers. How would they not be able to uphold the solemnity civil rights if they had the practice of expression with their body and voice in their duty? Dance offs would reign, free-style would rule. AH

• [HenryPootel]

  What – no dubstep or Maori remix?

• [snakedart]

  Welcome to the United States, where military bases need to be protected from roving gangs of chanting, unarmed civilians by armored, club-toting policemen.

  Goodness knows what havoc they might have wreaked against the defenseless military personnel inside had they been allowed to continue singing.

• [Darlene Dralus]

  Echoing an earlier clarification, these are military police who happened to be stationed in Missouri, not Missouri police. I lived at Whiteman for two years as a kid when my dad was stationed there, and my mom and step-dad still go there regularly to shop at the commissary (step-dad is retired from the military).

  I think I was seven when my sisters and I slipped under the fence by our house and wandered around and got completely lost. We finally made it to this same gate but fortunately the MPs were much nicer then.  I guess midwestern friendliness has been drilled out of them these days.

  Local MO police would be from Knob Noster, Warrensburg or Sedalia. With stealth bombers, drones and the missile silos dotted around the area, there’s plenty for pro-peace folks to protest. Does anyone else wish they’d break out into ‘Thriller’?

  • [Felton / Moderator]

    Does anyone else wish they’d break out into ‘Thriller’?

    I was hoping for Rhythm Nation.

• [Navin_Johnson]

   ”Whiteman”  seems about right…

  • [Preston Sturges]

    Made me think R. Crumb’s “Whiteman” character with his suit and briefcase, his gut sucked in, his chest stuck out and his asshole tightly clenched. 

• [Ito Kagehisa]

  Some tips from experience:

  Trailing armor straps, particularly those on the footgear and codpiece, are a really bad idea.  If you are uncomfortable with your cod strapping, leaving it dangling and blowing in the wind is not the answer (you will note quite a few unsecured cods but only one with ribbands on).  Troops experiencing armor failure should step behind the line and repair.

  Resting the singlestick on the shield arm is also a bad idea.  Combined with the unsecured cods, this is a major vulnerability.  It would take about twenty minutes to train a crowd of teenagers to take the whole line down.  It would be far better to hold the stick down and back (experts only), nearly horizontally in front of the forehead above the shield (“hanging guard”) or rested on the shoulder.

  Beating cadence on your shields, on the other claw, is a very good idea.  It keeps the line moving properly in step.  Lines drift and stagger more without a cadence, and the roman-style shields they are using are best used in tight formation.  Singing is good too, but beating time doesn’t put you out of breath the way bellowing “Men of Harlech” does.

  • [Ihavenofuckingname]

     I’m fond of the ‘coming to your senses and quitting’ technique, when it comes to physically intimidating elderly women.

    • [Ito Kagehisa]

       Well said!  You know, there’s really no good way to fight little old ladies.  They’re quite likely to win any given confrontation, but even if they don’t, that just means everybody loses.

      My 96-pound, nearly blind, 90+ year old aunt dragged me almost fifty feet a few years back.  Walked right up and grabbed me by the mustache, so that I had to bend nearly double to keep from being de-lipped.  She was in a hurry to introduce me to somebody, or something.

  • [Rob]

    Good info but I only see this riot gear as helpful against non violent protesters. One person with a rifle could take the whole line down too. This is America, where there are more guns than people.

  • [t3kna2007]

    I’m greatly enjoying your repeated use of the word “cod”.  Just thought you should know.

  • [mr_mediocre]

    Of course they should be singing, they’re in Calontir!

    • [Ito Kagehisa]

       Mr. Mediocre, I served with Calontir, I know some Calontiri, Richard of Wolfwood is a friend of mine.  These men are no sons of Calontir!

      ;)

• [william shannon]

  “Don’t fight forces, use them.”
  Bucky
  (1895-1983), Systems Theorist/Architect/Engineer/Author/Inventor

  • [Guest]

    Call him trimtab. It’s really quite a profound epitaph.

• [Bill Robinson]

  Brings to mind E.P. Thompson’s book The Heavy Dancers.

  That book was about the nuclear arms race, but the B-29 bomber visible in the background is a good reminder that the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, current operator of the B-2 bomber, is the direct descendant of the unit that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bomber at the gate is painted to look like The Great Artiste, which served as the observer aircraft at both bombings.

• [Culturedropout]

  So do you think that these “police” and/or their commanders have any idea how absurd they look?  The whole, “I’m stomping and whacking my shield with my club to intimidate you” was cheesy enough I was cringing.  Then I saw who they were facing and I was so embarrassed for them I had to stop the video.  It’s like something right out of Monty Python.  There just needs to be a huge foot that comes out of the sky and steps on them in mid-whack.  The end result was that they were about as intimidating as a bunch of kittens.

• [Culturedropout]

  P.S. – Is it just me, or does the dude in the sunglasses look like a 12-year-old who decided to try on his dad’s uniform?

• [Katherine McLemore]

  What nobody mentions is that these protesters had been told they had every right to protest as long as they stayed outside the base. They agreed to do this. They later went back on their word and trespassed onto the base. They were asked to leave, and refused. Only then was riot control called. I more or less agree with the protesters…I don’t like the drone strikes any more than anybody else. But just like you can’t stand inside WalMart and interfere with the running of their business if you want to protest WalMart, you can’t trespass and interfere with the running of a military base if you want to protest the military.

  I know this looks kind of crazy and violent, but the other option would have been to personally and bodily remove each trespasser from the base, which would have carried MUCH more potential for injury (military OR civilian).

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    But just like you can’t stand inside WalMart and interfere with the running of their business if you want to protest WalMart, you can’t trespass and interfere with the running of a military base if you want to protest the military.

    I think you’ll find that you can do both of those things. The fact that Walmart and the military don’t want it is supremely irrelevant to whether or not it’s the right thing to do. It’s a protest, not a birthday party.

    • [doomcake]

      agreed, you absolutely can do both those things, but if you don’t want to get arrested, don’t engage in civil disobedience.  I think the protestors are doing the right thing too, but doing the right thing doesn’t grant immunity from the law. Getting angry at walmart employees or soldiers isn’t going to help your cause. mocking their dance is fine though

      • [ADavies]

        There’s a trend to keep protesters more and more removed from the thing they’re protesting.  It pretty quickly goes beyond a reasonable compromise between free speech and not interfering with day to day business (which is presumably blowing people people up with drone launched munitions in this case). 

        It’s the tendency of government to protect the powerful and entrenched from exposure and inconvenience.

        • [Katherine McLemore]

          If you’re protesting CIA drone strikes at an airforce base in Missouri, you’re already well removed from what you’re protesting. NOBODY on that base has any authority over the drone program, and certainly not the young riot control guys they’re talking to.

  • [vertigo25]

    I’m not disputing your claim and I’ve seen other people make it, but I’ve yet to be presented with evidence for it. What I SEE is a group of people *well* outside of the base. So, what I’d like is for you or someone with more info on the protestors trespassing provide me with where you got hat information from.

    • [Chipsa]

      I wouldn’t call it well outside the base. You can determine from the structures visible in the video that it took place approximately here: http://g.co/maps/9vmtn From that, you can determine that at the very least they’re on the east side of 23, which would be where the base land is. This is distinct from where the fence is, since the fence does not encompass all of the base land, especially at the gate areas, because you want bad guys to be affirmatively on the base before you do things to them.

      TL;DR: if they were on the other side of the road, the MPs wouldn’t have been there.

    • [Katherine McLemore]

      There probably isn’t a whole lot of actual documentation for this available to the public, so I don’t blame you for being skeptical. (Although they’re not actually well outside the base, here. The base doesn’t start at that gate.) I happen to know how it went down because I know a couple of people who live on that base, including one of the guys in this video.

• [oasisob1]

  This post is not in defense of cops who behave badly. I wish to point out that I have searched YouTube for examples of cops serving and protecting, but I can’t seem to find any. Does it mean there aren’t any? Does it mean that uploading videos of cops pulling someone over for speeding and issuing the driver a ticket while behaving professionally doesn’t happen or is not regularly filmed? Perhaps nobody is interested in watching videos of the police doing what they are supposed to do, so we rarely get to see it? Generalizing the attitudes of a million based on the acts of a few (too many few, sadly, but still few) doesn’t really seem right. Let’s punish those who are in the wrong, and give respect to those who are holding down, living up to a code, doing their jobs, often in the face of danger, and some other, quite interesting forms of adversity. I am not a cop, never have been, never want to be. I’ve dealt with plenty, and they have all behaved quite professionally. I wish I’d filmed them and posted it on YouTube.

  • [chenille]

    Wasn’t there a whole TV show of cops doing their jobs? How hard did you actually look for those clips?

    • [oasisob1]

      Professionally shot, edited down to just the ‘interesting bits’. I’m looking for cellphone video of real life. I know Cops is a real show, and I like watching it (whatever that says about me), but that isn’t what I mean.

• [Mantissa128]

  At Missouri Industries, it has long been our goal to create artificial intelligence almost indistinguishable from mankind itself.

  I can carry out directives that my human counterparts might find… distressing, or unethical.

  I understand human emotions, although I do not feel them myself.

• [mothernatureseven]

  cops ~ that special breed of human that have no self worth at all and can only feel good about themselves when bulling others. If you get a group. of cops and criminals and administer the MMPI you will see they are almost identical – they map right out over each other. Both groups want to live outside the norms of society. Only one area shows differences.
  The cops are afraid of the consequences of inappropriate behavior, basically cowards, so they become cops and can live without fear of any trouble for breaking the law. Runs as high as 95% in some tests and averages around 80%.
  So remember ~~. 8 out of 10 cops just want an excuse to beat you.

• [geessebeschleier]

  They look very young …. I was expecting more “seasoned” ones.
  The shield and baton routine is impressive when it is performed by the right forces though (by that i mean police forces specifically trained for “crowd control”, like the CRS in France)  

• [miasm]

  Make music from the chaos.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJfwTdgCnYI

• [Anonyman]

  Bad headline.

  These aren’t police, and they aren’t Missouri employees (or residents, for the most part.)

  They aren’t thug cops harassing protestors just to be assholes, they’re guards trying to keep the gate free of obstructions. It’s extremely important to keep the gates at a military installation clear for several reasons:

  -There is a lot of vehicle traffic, and an exiting or entering vehicle could accidently strike a pedestrian.

  -There are very few gates, and should the base need to be evacuated, all gates need to be free of obstruction to ensure no one gets hurt.

  -Military bases have to consider significant security threats, even on American soil, and a bunch of otherwise well meaning protestors blocking the only street significantly compounds these threats.

  These aren’t police attempting to kettle and beat unarmed civilians. They simply want people clear of the gate.