Army reviews troop use after fatal Ala. shootings

[wolfhunter]

I served in the Marines and have in-laws scattered all across that region.
Festus is dead on. Uniformed troops were in violation of the law. If those troops showed up in civies and offered to help, that would be supporting the local community. Arriving in uniform and functioning as police in any capacity is wrong.

[festus]

OMG festus!!! Chill out!! You have people direct traffic all the time who are not police! As far as having no business in uniform you need to get educated. I dont know what your deal is but if you are one of those flag waving chest thumping freedom nuts let me remind you who is responsible on a daily basis for defending our most basic freedoms. I can wear my uniform ANY TIME and ANYWHERE I WANT!! The only thing that restricts my wear of the uniform I have EARNED is the regulation that governs it. NOT YOU. Now according to the news story it is still unclear who ordered these Soldiers into action.

State officials said the deployment of 22 military police officers and the provost marshal from Fort Rucker was requested neither by Republican Gov. Bob Riley nor the White House, which typically is required by law for soldiers to operate on U.S. soil.

Now the way I read this is neither the federal nor the state government ordered this. In addition, the above statement is flawed. Proper authorization is required for Soldiers to undertake military functions (combat operations) or law enforcement functions on US soil. Once again, neither appears to have happened here.
Explain to me anyone exactly what oppressive government agenda was furthered here?
Just goes to prove that there are extremists in every group.
BUT....If you would rather the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines stationed all over our great nation simply shut themselves away inside the gates of their military installations and sever the ties being good neighbors with the communities that host them have forged....if you would rather our military men and women get locked away behind a glass door that says, "Break In Case of War," then I feel you forget that we are people/citizens just as much as everyone else. We are members of our communities. To imply that we should simply ostracize ourselves from the very communities we serve is simply ridiculous. Stop seeing a conspiracy beneath every rock and start trying to see the people inside the uniform.

I love my country and I swore an oath to defend the constitution. We cannot cross the line even a little with the best of intentions. Somebody had to give the order. That somebody was wrong. While I applaud the troops for helping, It should not have been in uniform. There is no US Army jurisdiction in what went on and no formal request was made by Natl Command Auth. or the Office of the Govenor. Yes, I am a freedom nut. That is why I spent my time in the military. I love my country, but I will not sit idle while the constitution is shredded (even with good intentions). 3 of my coworkers lost family in this senseless tragedy and I grieve for their losses. I also grieve for the incrimental loss of constitutional law in this REPUBLIC. Yes, I want our military in the community but I want them there LEGALLY! I have had to assist with securing crash scenes after military aircraft went down and that is a whole lot different than acting in any police capacity. You see, The military has a duty and an obligation to fill in that aspect but not as cops and not without proper authority to procede.

[HK4U]

Let me say that I am one of those "flag waving chest thumping freedom nuts", that you refer to so thank you. I plead guilty to taking the constitution seriously. I even read it. I know that makes me a real radical. Also I would like to thank you for your permission to have my own opinions. I will continue to speak out against things that I feel are wrong and I will continue to wave the flag. Now this conversation is really over.

[Piece Corps]

Sorry, but according to the Constitution (and every other law on the books), the US Army had no right to be there IN ANY CAPACITY. Period! One guy kills 10 people, and the town needs soldiers to direct traffic? Pardon my french, but bullsh*t! Had it been a bunch of armed gang members roaming the streets and firing on police and civilians, it would STILL take a government order to bring in the Army. And I don't care if the sheriff, the police chief, or the mayor asked for help, unless there was a NATIONAL EMERGENCY, no military are authorized to perform ANY law enforcement or police actions inside the United States.

And doc96, you can wear that uniform anywhere you like, but it doesn't give you the right to do anything within the borders of the US unless called upon by the government under martial law. You can't carry your M-16 down Main Street, you can't police the streets and you can't even do anything that the police can. I have more rights with a carry permit than you do with your uniform.

Now, if the local Army base wants to come in and help build a house, or pick up trash along the highways, or help build a ball park, or raise funds for some charity, that's a different story.

And in case you don't know, I'm a vet, and my USAF uniform still hangs in my closet. I don't wear it around town, and I don't claim any special powers because I have one.

[nb8n]

>The Army said Wednesday it opened an inquiry into whether federal laws were broken when nearly two dozen soldiers were sent to a south Alabama town after 11 people died in a shooting spree last week.

This is typical weasel talk. I'm a mystery novel writer, and here's how stories work, in fiction and in real life. You have action and reaction; scene and sequel, and cause and affect. To understand the second half of these all you need to do is understand the first half. That is, you can't react to anything before the action that caused the reaction. Same with the others, and the same with this action of Army troops deployed to an Alabama town. They reacted to an action; their presence in this town was the sequel of a prior scene (think direct order); and the outrage "affect" of the Army taking station in the town was triggered by the cause (again, think direct order).
For citizens to be fed the line that no one knows how this could have happened, then, we are receiving more action (in the form of BS), and the outcome will be more reaction (citizen anger).
And elected officials wonder why their approval rating is on par with a social disease.
We need to clean house, folks.

[LaserTex]

Retired Air Force here. My 2 cents! In 1985, Labor Day weekend, Keesler AFB was hit by Hurricane Elaina. She was only a strong 2 put it looked like ... well, like it was hit by a hurricane. Biloxi was BLASTED. No power on base; or water. Hot and sticky as hell. We students SAT IN THE CENTER PLAZAS of our dorms for 2 FULL DAYS, picking up the pea stones from the roof. WHY? Until the area could be DECLARED a Federal Disaster area. Less than 5 minutes after that was DECLARED, the buses that we were loaded on left Keesler gates and we headed downtown...in uniform...to assist. I worked cleaning up what used to be a seaside McDonald's. Ronald was blown to bits. The one thing that had always made me so mad was those 2 days of picking up pea stone from the grass and putting them in all these blue plastic pools. I now fully understand why we did.

Doug -