The role of the police in the present day may have been shaped by the term “police action” used in times like the American intervention in Korea during the Korean War. The term “police action” is described by the United Nations as “military undertaking that does not require a declaration of war” (brittanica.com). This tactic can only be performed if one of the two statements are met:
1. “When a state perpetuated an attack on another state or proposed a threat to international peace and security” or
2. “As a self defense tactic of imminent attacks, even if the aggressors have not attacked”
This term seems like a euphemism for military intervention, a more aggressive militarized action. President Truman’s executive decision to send military under the UN’s declaration of “police action” was a strategy to technically intervene in Korea without officially declaring war. The implications of this involvement reflects in the way the police today has used violence against Black Americans without having to formally declare war.
Rather than the motto of “to protect and to serve”, the police has the image of a militarized soldier role that uses violence, aggression, and weapons to de escalate conflicts. Presently, “police action” looks like “police brutality”, the excessive use of force. The meaning and role of “police action” has changed from a technical justification of military action into the unofficial declaration of war through “police brutality”. No matter the term, the USA’s military state has shaped the violent actions from the past during the Korean War and in the present in the domestic violence against Black lives.
-Melissa Lee
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