Office of Public Safety (OPS) — Bunk History

“The Police Know Guerrilla Warfare”

During the Cold War, cops at home and military personnel abroad exchanged techniques and tactics to mete out repression and thwart leftist insurgencies.

by Kyle Burke via Jacobin on December 20, 2019

The Thick Blue Line

How the United States became the world’s police force.

by Patrick Blanchfield via Bookforum on December 2, 2019

A photo of law enforcement emerging from a hazy cloud on a city street.

Trump Has Brought America’s Dirty Wars Home

The authoritarian tactics we’ve exported around the world in the name of national security are now being deployed in Portland.

by Stuart Schrader via The New Republic on July 21, 2020

Laborers in El Salvador receive food allotments as part of a program sponsored by U.S.A.I.D., in 1983.

Growing Up U.S.A.I.D.

As a child in postings around the world, the author witnessed the agency’s complex relationship with American empire—and with autocrats everywhere.

by Jon Lee Anderson via The New Yorker on February 25, 2025

Yes, American Police Act Like Occupying Armies. They Literally Studied Their Tactics

The founders of modern policing quelled foreign uprisings. ‘Demilitarizing’ police will be harder than taking away their tanks.

by Stuart Schrader via The Guardian on June 8, 2020

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