As a 30-year resident of Berkeley, and a person of faith, I am opposed to the Berkeley police department’s participation in Urban Shield exercises. Many of us were horrified as the situation unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri, after the killing of Michael Brown, when police and SWAT teams approached protesters in tanks with military assault weaponry.
Berkeley Police Chief Andrew Greenwood says that could not happen here, but when police are trained to treat people like they are enemy combatants, it increases the chances that they will respond to local emergencies as though they are in a war. One look at any of the videos on the Urban Shield website shows the rampant militarism that underlines the training. Is this what we want for Berkeley?
