Deadly Force and Individual Rights

Insight on the News, Nov 8, 1999 by Kelly Patricia O'Meara

U.S. special-operations military units are participating In civilian law-enforcement activities within the United States, raising questions of legality and ultimate purpose.

Six years after the siege on Mount Carmel, citizens and lawmakers alike are angry and shocked about details now unfolding concerning the raid that left 75 Branch Davidians dead. Allegations that military personnel were present and participated in the raid on the Davidian compound raise serious questions about mingling of military and civilian forces in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which forbids such deployment.

Just one day after the siege at Waco, Texas, ended in a fiery horror, President Clinton gave the American people a glimpse of what to expect. The government could not be responsible for "the fact that a bunch of fanatics decided to kill themselves," he said. The commander in chief then warned that "there is, unfortunately, a rise in this sort of fanaticism across the world. And we may have to confront it again."

The tragedy at Waco by no means is the first or only example of violations of Posse Comitatus, but it does underscore the volatile cocktail that can result from mixing special-operations troops and civilian law enforcement. Separation of civilian and military forces long has been an American tradition, but under the guise of the "war on drugs" and the "war on terrorism" Congress in the last two decades has enacted piecemeal legislation allowing military intervention in civilian law enforcement, which many believe violates the intent, if not the letter, of the law.

For instance, in 1981 Congress passed the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Officials Act, which authorizes the military to "assist" civilian police in enforcing of drug laws. In 1989 President Bush created six regional joint task forces, or JTFs, within the Department of Defense, or DOD, to coordinate military and police agencies in the drug war. And, again in 1993, DOD and the Department of Justice signed a memorandum of understanding enabling the military to transfer technology to state and local police departments. The difference between the mission of civilian and military forces in this context is remarkable. Civilian law-enforcement personnel are trained to deal with situations occurring locally on the city, county or state level. They are trained to consider the individual rights of the citizen, regardless of the severity of the crime, and use of force is a measure of last resort. On the other hand, the mission of the military is national security. Troops are trained to concentrate deadly force on an enemy.

Furthermore, says a law-enforcement official who asked not to be identified, the distinction between the two forces rarely is understood by the general population. "Police don't have rules of engagement," he says. "They have a use-of-force policy. Every law-enforcement officer, office, agency or department in the United States lives by the same use-of-force policy. That is, police may use force only to the level necessary to neutralize a situation and may use deadly force only to protect themselves or the lives of others," he says.

Whatever term is applied, the fact remains that U.S. troops are participating in civilian law-enforcement activities inside the United States. Often the outcome is frightening and, as in the case of the raid on the Branch Davidians, can be disastrous. Nonetheless, special-operations military units, such as the 160th Special Ops group (also known as Delta Force) out of Fort Campbell, Ky., which has been implicated in the attack at Waco, for years have been training in U.S. cities for the possibility of "terrorist activities."

Training exercises known as Military Operations in Urban Terrain, or MOUT, have been carried out in dozens of cities throughout the United States. Residents of Charlotte, N.C., Pittsburgh, Houston and Chicago are among those who have been awakened in the dead of night by hundreds of military troops rappelling from helicopters hovering at treetop level, firing automatic weapons and exploding flash-bang and smoke grenades.

Col. Bill Darley, a spokesman for DOD, tells Insight that "these exercises are not law-enforcement missions. They're secret combat activities for very explicit purposes such as scenarios involving recovery of a weapon of mass destruction, incidents of terrorism and hostage rescue. The activities would be approximating the same situation as in a foreign country. We conduct these large-scale exercises in the Southern states as make-believe foreign countries. Charlotte, N.C., for example, could be Paris, Munich or any other built-up urban area outside the United States."

Darley continues, "What we're talking about is close-quarter combat. People engaged in shooting at each other. It's war gaming in the same way that troops prep for war gaming overseas. It's just easier to arrange the activities here than overseas. We arrange these exercises well in advance with the local officials, police and fire departments, and we do our best to go door-to-door notifying residents that there will be loud noises and so on."