In the summer of 2014, the people of Ferguson were brutally subjected to a military-style crackdown by local law enforcement following the murder of teenager Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Police officers who appeared more like combat soldiers pointed military-grade assault rifles at peaceful protesters. Paramilitary units dressed in camouflage fired tear gas into residents’ front yards, and armored personnel carriers (APCs) rampaged through the streets of residential neighborhoods.
In the summer of 2015, at a weekend pool party in McKinney, Texas, police officer David Eric Casebolt brutally took down a fifteen year-old girl. Arriving at the pool party to which police had reportedly been called for noise complaints, Casebolt showed up on scene and did a barrel roll as if he were under fire. After cursing at the girl and violently slamming her into the ground, Casebolt pulled out his gun on the bystanders who attempted to diffuse the situation and get the girl out of harm’s way.
What do these two examples of American police brutality have in common? Both the tactics and military equipment deployed by the St Louis County Police Department, in charge of “occupying” Ferguson in the summer of 2014, as well as the form of martial arts called Krav Maga which Casebolt used to take down the 15 year-old, originally came from Israel.
With more than 60 years of experience in military occupation, ethnic cleansing, settler colonialism, racial…