NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Why Baton Rouge police look dressed for war

By Thomas Gibbons-Neff analysis
Washington Post·
11 Jul, 2016 08:41 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Police officers watch protesters gathering against another group of protesters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Photo / AP

Police officers watch protesters gathering against another group of protesters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Photo / AP

Police departments in the United States have received waves of criticism over the past two years for using military-grade equipment in relatively benign situations.

A new wave of protests in Baton Rouge has reignited the debate over the role of such hardware in American policing.

Photographs and video shot over the weekend show Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police, sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement officers clad in body armour and gas masks and wielding semiautomatic rifles.

In one sequence, riot police and Swat officers flank an armoured vehicle as it eases through a relatively peaceful crowd, a scene that looks similar to a military patrol through a hostile city.

The juxtaposition of the equipment and protesters is reminiscent of the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, in the weeks after the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Baton Rouge's display of military-grade equipment followed last week's fatal shooting of Alton Sterling as two Baton Rouge police officers tried to arrest him.

Protests there turned violent over the weekend; the Baton Rouge Police Department said that one officer's teeth were knocked out and that a number of firearms were confiscated during one of the rallies.

According to Jason Fritz, a former Army officer and an international policing operations analyst, the resurgence of military equipment and heavy-handed tactics in Baton Rouge is the byproduct of a state-centric approach to policing, one of the two policing philosophies most commonly seen in the United States.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In Baton Rouge's case, Fritz says, the police are there to disperse protesters and protect themselves.

This is opposite of what has been seen in Dallas in the days both before and after Friday's killing of five officers there, according to Fritz. "They're there to protect the citizens first and then themselves," he said of Dallas's citizen-centric approach.

Officers in Baton Rouge "want to play soldier," said Brandon Friedman, a former Army infantry officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Monday, Friedman tweeted the now-iconic picture of armour-laden Baton Rouge police moving to arrest a woman standing in the middle of a street.

"These cops clearly don't have good relationships with their own community. They feel like the answer to this is to come down with the boot," Friedman said. "It's an entirely ineffective way to deal with it."

Friedman compared the Baton Rouge police's response to the protests to his time conducting counterinsurgency operations in Iraq. The units that tried to meet civil uprisings with force usually found themselves in a "downward spiral" when it came to gaining the community's trust.

"Units that strove to have good relationships with the community usually incurred more risks but generally had a better outcome," Friedman said. "Baton Rouge is making a lot of mistakes, and they look ridiculous."

One image from the weekend shows two Baton Rouge Swat officers armed with semiautomatic carbines affixed with close-quarter optics. One officer has two 30-round magazines clipped together so that, if needed, he could reload faster. The officer is wearing a tactical-style, low-profile helmet with a night-vision boom attached - although it is missing the actual night-vision device.

Other pictures taken during the protests show officers with gas masks and heavy shoulder pads, known as deltoid armour.

Police departments across the United States have received military equipment from what is known as the 1033 Programme. The programme allows the US Government to offer excess defence items to police departments at significantly reduced prices.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
A protester is grabbed by police officers in riot gear after she refused to leave the motor way in front of the the Baton Rouge Police Department Headquarters. Photo / AP
A protester is grabbed by police officers in riot gear after she refused to leave the motor way in front of the the Baton Rouge Police Department Headquarters. Photo / AP

While departments can purchase sandbags and other small items under the 1033 Programme, they can also buy armoured vehicles such as Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, which were used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In May 2015, US President Barack Obama moved to prohibit the sale of certain items, such as bayonets and grenade launchers, to police departments under the 1033 Programme.

While some of the equipment seen on Baton Rouge's streets might seem overboard, one officer insists that it's not a "one size fits all" approach and that just because certain tactics work in Dallas doesn't mean they're going to work in a city like Baton Rouge.

The officer, who patrols a larger Southern city, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to talk to the media.

"People are going to say that it looks militarised if the guy is just supposed to be doing normal patrol duties and he looks like he just stepped off a Blackhawk [helicopter], then, yeah, that's a bad look," the officer said. "But if you're out there with no cover and you don't know who they are or where they're coming from, I think some of it is justified."

He added that in a lot of cases protesters are bused in from surrounding areas or are from out of town and that police departments share intelligence with one another, often prompting responses that might not jibe with the actual situation in the community.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I'm thinking of deleting my Facebook," the officer said, clearly frustrated at the amount of criticism levelled at his profession in recent weeks. "All of a sudden millions of people are use-of-force experts, but no one's signing up to be a police officer."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from World

WorldUpdated

Texas flash flood toll passes 100, including 27 at summer camp

08 Jul 12:10 AM
Premium
World

Ukraine turns to fishing nets to catch Russian drones

07 Jul 11:59 PM
World

Watch: Footage of police officer being injured in alleged assault at airport

07 Jul 11:50 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

Texas flash flood toll passes 100, including 27 at summer camp

Texas flash flood toll passes 100, including 27 at summer camp

08 Jul 12:10 AM

Forecasters have warned of more flooding as rain falls on already saturated ground.

Premium
Ukraine turns to fishing nets to catch Russian drones

Ukraine turns to fishing nets to catch Russian drones

07 Jul 11:59 PM
Watch: Footage of police officer being injured in alleged assault at airport

Watch: Footage of police officer being injured in alleged assault at airport

07 Jul 11:50 PM
Trump announces tariffs of 25-40% on 14 countries

Trump announces tariffs of 25-40% on 14 countries

07 Jul 11:29 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP