{"id":8161,"date":"2025-06-23T09:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T14:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=8161"},"modified":"2025-06-23T09:58:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T14:58:13","slug":"is-the-u-s-military-becoming-a-domestic-police-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/is-the-u-s-military-becoming-a-domestic-police-force\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the U.S. Military Becoming a Domestic Police Force?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\">On June 14, during a protest in Los Angeles against immigration raids, a U.S. Army veteran named Marcos Leao was detained\u2014not by local law enforcement, but by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2025\/06\/18\/veteran-was-detained-marines-it-highlights-concerns-over-militarys-growing-ties-law-enforcement.html?ESRC=dod_250620.nl&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=dod&amp;utm_campaign=20250620\" title=\"\">U.S. Marines.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Leao, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and headphones, was simply navigating around a federal building to pick up paperwork at the Department of Veterans Affairs. After mistakenly crossing a police tape barrier and complying with verbal instructions to return, Leao was zip-tied by Marines and held for nearly two hours before being turned over to LAPD. He was never charged with a crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This incident may sound isolated\u2014but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s a symptom of a deeply troubling shift in the role of the military within U.S. borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A Violation of Law and Trust<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The use of active-duty Marines in a civilian detention context violates the spirit\u2014and possibly the letter\u2014of the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/research-reports\/posse-comitatus-act-explained\" title=\"\">Posse Comitatus Act<\/a><\/strong>, which explicitly limits the use of federal military personnel in domestic law enforcement. Legal experts interviewed by Military.com are raising alarms: if the Marines detained Leao simply to keep him compliant until police arrived, this was more than property protection\u2014it was law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Dan Maurer, a retired Army JAG and law professor, put it succinctly: \u201cIf it\u2019s zip-tying them so that they can more easily keep them docile\u2026 that looks like a temporary arrest.\u201d In other words, a military occupation tactic is being misapplied to American streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A Growing Pattern of Militarization<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This isn\u2019t happening in a vacuum. Under the direction of President Donald Trump and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/feature\/SECDEFHegseth\" title=\"\">Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a>, the line between military and police is rapidly eroding. Active-duty troops have been deployed to U.S. cities to support immigration enforcement, including 2,000 Marines and National Guard troops currently stationed in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Pilot programs have emerged linking the Department of Homeland Security with military bases, allowing ICE to operate in military zones. Service members are being encouraged to train with Border Patrol and ICE agents while still in uniform. These deployments are not about defense\u2014they\u2019re about deterrence, control, and political theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Military zone prompting arrests, criticism\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IIV_aPDIl4U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>False Security at a Real Cost<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Military deployments in domestic settings are often justified as a response to \u201cchaos\u201d or \u201cinsurrection,\u201d yet many of the soldiers on the ground report doing nothing. Some are spending their time gaming or studying. These missions serve more as <strong>symbolic threats<\/strong> than substantive security measures, designed to project power rather than provide safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">But the costs are real:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\"><strong>Readiness declines<\/strong> when troops are pulled from training for vague domestic deployments.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\"><strong>Morale suffers<\/strong>, as troops are forced into legally and ethically dubious situations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\"><strong>Recruitment may drop<\/strong>, as young people question the purpose of enlisting in a force increasingly used for domestic suppression rather than defense.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A Dangerous Precedent<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The optics of Marines zip-tying civilians, National Guard troops standing by during ICE raids, and thousands of active-duty personnel supporting border militarization cannot be dismissed. These are not the signs of a healthy democracy\u2014they are warning lights on the dashboard of civil liberties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">As one expert put it, we are entering \u201cdistinction-without-a-difference land.\u201d To the public, it does not matter if the military is \u201cdetaining\u201d instead of \u201carresting.\u201d What matters is that American streets are starting to look like occupied territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>We Need a Peace Economy\u2014Not a Permanent War Posture<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">At the Peace Economy Project, we believe this moment calls for vigilance, advocacy, and a re-centering of our values. True security comes not from soldiers on sidewalks or armored vehicles near courthouses, but from robust public services, equitable justice systems, and diplomacy over domination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Veterans like Marcos Leao fought for democratic freedoms. To see them detained by their own military is not only ironic\u2014it is a clarion call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">We must resist this creeping normalization of military force in civilian life. It\u2019s time to demilitarize our policies, our borders, and our imaginations\u2014and invest in peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When a U.S. Army veteran was zip-tied and detained by active-duty Marines during a peaceful visit to a federal building in Los Angeles, it wasn\u2019t just an isolated incident\u2014it was a glimpse into a growing shift.<br \/>\nUnder expanded mandates and political pressure, the military is being pulled into roles traditionally reserved for civilian law enforcement. From border enforcement to protest response, the line between defense and domestic policing is quickly eroding\u2014and with it, the safeguards meant to protect civil liberties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[426,427,428,318,306],"class_list":["post-8161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-civil-military-relations","tag-domestic-militarization","tag-law-enforcement","tag-posse-comitatus","tag-u-s-military"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/wesley-tingey-TQ5vNnfOBvQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8163,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8161\/revisions\/8163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}