The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction, with the intention (in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807) of substantially limiting the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (today the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain “law and order” on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) within the United States.
The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress.
Oops?
The U.S. Army has launched an inquiry into how and why active duty troops from Fort Rucker, Ala., came to be placed on the streets of Samson, Ala., during last week’s murder spree in that tiny South Alabama community. The use of the troops was a possible violation of federal law.
“On March 10, after a report of an apparent mass murder in Samson, Ala., 22 military police soldiers from Fort Rucker, Ala., along with the provost marshal, were sent to the city of Samson,” Harvey Perritt, spokesman for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) at Fort Monroe, Va., told CNSNews.com on Monday.
“The purpose for sending the military police, the authority for doing so, and what duties they performed is the subject of an ongoing commander’s inquiry–directed by the commanding general of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Gen. Martin Dempsey.”
Should’ve called the JAG first.
I file this under “sin of commission”. Case closed.
b2
for what it’s worth, there are a lot of MOU, MOA that describe Mutual Aid agreements between the base and local community. I don’t know if this was the case but it is common.
I read a news report (sorry, can’t remember, probably Drudge) that quoted the local police chief saying “someone” had called the base, and that the service members that responded did not carry weapons, did not attempt to arrest or detain, and were requested to secure evidence scenes and direct traffic, which they did. Sounds like a non-affair to me, unless you hate the military and just look for bad things to say.
Now, if someone with some rank had stepped in front of a microphone and said, “We were asked by the local authorities to provide emergency assistance, as they only had 8 officers total, and needed crime scene securing and traffic control. We are good neighbors, and when asked to assist in a manner which did not violate the spirit of Posse Comitatus, we were ready and willing to help our neighbors. Get a life, get over it, get that camera out of my face before I stick it in your fourth point of contact”.
Well, there’s “Posse Comitatus” and then there are “ways around” PC…
What a training opportunity to practice patrolling in an urban environment!
And, if some idiot takes shot at the troops, Target Practice!
I forgot to include a pretty good explanation of PC that can be found here.
Sounds like someone took a broad interpretation of a mutual aid agreement. But the devil will be in the details. I believe I saw a picture that showed MPs wearing sidearms, a prudent precaution when someone is running around town killing people.
If the MPs were acting as just “skilled labor” in securing crime scenes and were otherwise just good witnesses for criminal activity (as officers outside their jurisdiction are for all but life threatening crimes), then this a non-issue. Perhaps a technical violation but not a spirit violation of the Act.
No citizens from the town or county seems to be complaining about MPs being on the street.
We are barreling out of control. It will be interesting to me to find out who exactly is committing these murders…
Is it the influence of Mexican drug cartels? I don’t want to jump to conclusions but…. 20 years of failed policy have supported a lot of the pathologies in this country.
Too bad we didn’t send the National Guard to our border years ago.
Sorry if I sound like a nut.
Since there are so many ridiculous things happening these days, let’s take this to the point of stupidity. IF in fact this “deployment of troops” was only to secure a crime scene as has been reported is a violation of the Posse Comitatus lets look at other Violations of this act. Let us NOT deploy aircraft of troops to fight wildfires. Let us NOT send the base fire department to back up the local community. Let us NOT send our docs & medics to civilian hospitals for training as they save lives from drugs and gang warfare. Let us not send troops, ships and aircraft to assist with recovery from hurricanes, floods and other disasters. The libs want to be ridiculous, let them be, look at all the defense $$’s to be saved by not supporting the local community.
babs,
Easy girl. It was a lone, crazy cracker done the killings…
b2
Yep, including hisself. Unfortunately for law abiding gun owners he went nuts with “black” guns. (pc disclaimer: “black” rifle is a generic slang term for an assault-type weapon and has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the ethnicity of anyone involved.) The Brady Bunch is having a field day on this.
“Should’ve called the JAG first”.
Man, I miss that show. The drama, suspense, quality scripts and plots, special effects, and ole what’s her name….
Her name was Catherine Bell:
http://xbradtc.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/load-heat-13/
Now those are some new uniforms that I can get some enthusiasm for….
I worked with a Marine at EUCOM who had those, and others (in Dress A’s and C’s) all in a .ppt deck. The last slide read “Now, if you don’t love the Corps, you’re a homo.”
Marines — the only ones to the right of aviators on the bluntness meter.
Let’s just call it deterrence. I bet a mass murderer might have second thoughts about doing something in Samson, AL after this affair.
OTOH: Had there been more murders…wold there be a cry: “Why didn’t you use the military????!!!!?!?!”
Most likely…or…as the folks in KY found out in Jan, the Feds can take their time…not coming to your aid at all, in any manner.
I always wondered about PC as back in 68 after the MLK assasination and we started training to put down civil unrest and riots. OPLANS were in place and as far as the active training ….you can imagine our enthusiasm….. I assumed it was all military, but ,maybe it was just us Coasties, being the only military with actual law enforcement duties and a certain statuatory authority outside posse comitatus .
I used to work with a guy who was in the Nat Guard and was deployed in DC during the 68 riots as a line of defense around the government buildings. He said their M16s weren’t loaded but the 82nd Airborne troops deployed inside as the last line of defense were locked and loaded.
He always had a tendency to embellish his stories but I always wondered if it was true.