Evolution Of Police Riot Gear

Just as the styles of protest have changed from one generation to the next, so have the styles of protest policing. Technological advances, training innovations and changing attitudes toward the right to assemble have all shaped the way the police handle the challenges of large demonstrations. 

During the 1960s and '70s, police officers treated many protests as a threat to the social order and responded with brute force. In the 1980s and '90s, demonstrations tended to be less confrontational and the police responded with more accommodating tactics.

Following the Battle in Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization in 1999, a more restrictive, preemptive and aggressive form of protest policing emerged at the 2003 protests in Miami over the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The current Occupy demonstrations have adopted a defiant and disruptive style of protest that has pushed the boundaries of the First Amendment, but the response has been mixed. 

Long Live People Power...

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Source from NY Times

Brazil Police Crash Smuggling Aircraft

Adrenaline pumping, Hollywood movie style police chase. Michael Bay would be proud of this. Awesome.

A Brazilian website has posted a video that it says shows Brazilian federal police ramming an aircraft as the plane attempts to take off from a rural road, because the plane was suspected of operating as part of a smuggling operation. The video, shot from the back seat of the car, shows one man in the car dressed in street clothes holding what appears to be a semi-automatic weapon. 

As the car pursues the aircraft, the driver reportedly says "Don't fire! I will hit the wing. Do not fire!" 

Soon after that the car catches up with the single engine aircraft and appears to strike the left wing, sending shattered glass into the car's cabin. One man exits and the camera pans to show the low-wing single engine aircraft sitting on a collapsed left main gear. The armed man exits and shouts at the aircraft's occupants. 

According to the Associated Press, a Brazilian federal police spokesman indicates that the pilot and four others were arrested, but nobody was hurt in the takedown. Five arrested, including the plane's pilot and the capture of approximately $200,000 in laptops and electronic surveillance equipment.