(Photo by World Bank Photo Collection via Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

On August 11th, 2025, the Donald Trump Administration of the United States federalized the Washington D.C. Police Department and deployed 800 National Guard Troops to the city. This comes after he deployed 5,000 troops onto the streets of Los Angeles to aid “immigration enforcement” operations in June. 

The justifications for these deployments are extraordinarily weak. The D.C. deployment hinged on Trump lying about crime data and the singular assault of a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee, while the L.A. deployment came only after two days of protest, which the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) described as “peaceful” and “without incident. 

Presidents have used the extraordinary measure of deploying troops domestically before, but the deployments were in response to large-scale, destructive rioting. In comparison, these deployments mark a disturbing escalation in the use of the military in domestic affairs and the militarization of police. 

Martinican poet Aimé Césaire outlined the definition of the “Imperial Boomerang”, initially calling it the “boomerang effect” to describe the brutality of colonial violence returning home. Aimé first used the term in 1950, referencing the horrors the Nazis inflicted on Europe. The U.S. population is noticing the boomerang approaching at a rapid pace, while in reality, it has been a long-lasting phenomenon.

The Vietnam War Comes Home

The 1970 Kent State Massacre marked the first time American citizens felt the Imperial Boomerang. During an anti-war demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio, members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire, resulting in four killings and nine injuries. The Kent State Massacre mirrored American actions in Vietnam at the time, just on a smaller scale. Like the 1968 My Lai Massacre, where troops mercilessly murdered 128 innocent Vietnamese civilians. 

As veterans and weapons from the Vietnam War started to flow back home, local police departments began creating Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to manage increased anti-war protests and the civil rights movement. SWAT  teams mainly consisted of Vietnam Veterans, using the same weapons and tactics as they did abroad. At first, the government reserved SWAT  for specialised missions, such as hostage rescue and pursuit of dangerous fugitives, deploying only a few hundred times per year.  

Even these early uses remain controversial, as SWAT teams mainly went after political opponents such as the Black Panthers, a revolutionary political party focused on black liberation and social justice. Black Panther activities included voter registration and food drives that provided breakfast for up to 20,000 children daily. The LAPD’s first SWAT raid sought to disarm the Panthers of illegal firearms. The raid was successful, with the Black Panthers surrendering after a four-hour siege. The raid’s success, along with the success of additional SWAT missions, led to a nationwide expansion of the SWAT program. 

Post-War SWAT Expansion

By the 1980s, there were 3,000 annual SWAT deployments, and 55% of American cities with a population over 50,000 now had a SWAT team. Increased SWAT activity led to a rise in police brutality, especially as SWAT teams progressively took over police functions and waged the War on Drugs. SWAT teams started to enforce warrants, conduct drug raids, control riots, quell domestic violence disputes, and, in some cases, perform animal control. Trump now wants the military fighting the War on Drugs.

At the height of the War on Drugs, when all levels of the U.S. government began heavily punishing drug use, Los Angeles was selected by the International Olympic Committee to host the 1984 Olympics. The federal and local government tasked the LAPD with ensuring the city would be crime and drug-free during the games. In preparation for this task, the police commissioner sent the LAPD SWAT team to train with its French and German counterparts, as well as British military special forces. 

While the 84 Olympics played out relatively smoothly, the SWAT team’s “paramilitary approach” led to increased community distrust. The SWAT team mainly patrolled Black and Latino neighbourhoods across the city, harassing and intimidating residents. This would become a familiar nationwide pattern, as by the 90s, 89% of cities with over 50,000 residents had SWAT teams. 

The 90s Double-Down

Under the false assumption that increased police presence and militarization were key to decreasing the crime rate, politicians doubled down on SWAT and militarization by expanding the 1981 Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Act (MCLEA). The MCLEA allowed the Department of Defence (DOD) to aid local law enforcement and provide equipment, as long as it was part of drug, immigration, or customs enforcement. 

The MCLEA’s first three years saw the DOD grant over 10,000 law enforcement assistance requests, ranging from surveillance to property seizures. The “cooperation” blurred the lines between the police and the military, existing in a legal gray zone. According to the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, the military is prohibited from carrying out domestic law enforcement duties.

In 1990, Congress expanded the MCLEA, creating the 1208 program via the National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA). The 1208 program allowed for increased transfers of military grade weapons to local police departments, provided they use the weapons for drug enforcement. Despite this explicit limitation, police brutality and militarization increased, even to the point where the military got directly involved.

Eventually, crime decreased dramatically in the 90s, and politicians credited increased SWAT usage by 583% and 157% between 1980 and 1997,  for cities with over 50,000 people and smaller cities, respectively. The government miscredited SWAT for the decreased crime rate, as several factors, including legalized abortion, removing lead from gasoline, and better mental health care, contributed to the fall. As the increased law enforcement presence led to increased police violence, support for SWAT teams decreased. 

Despite this backlash, in 1997, Congress intensified the 1208 program, turning it into the 1033 program. The new 1033 program allowed police departments to collect surplus military equipment free of charge, provided they covered the costs of shipping and handling. The upcoming War on Terror provided law enforcement with the perfect excuse to expand this partnership. 

Waging The War on Terror

On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists committed the worst terrorist act in U.S. history with the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. The attack cascaded into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, leading the U.S. to commit innumerable war crimes. Over the course of the war, the U.S. arrested and tortured thousands, disregarding the fact that most were civilians. 

Unsurprisingly, the disdain for civil rights did not stay abroad. Less than twenty days after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, the government passed the Patriot Act, greatly increasing the government’s jurisdiction and capacity to spy on citizens and residents.  The government, through the National Security Agency (NSA), abused this newfound power and spied on Americans’ communications in all forms. This espionage is a direct violation of the 4th amendment, which protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures”. The NSA is still actively spying on Americans.  

The U.S. dangerously increased police size and militarization after 9/11. The government spent between 8 trillion dollars on the War on Terror, and the “excess equipment” had to go somewhere. As the money flowed into the military, allowing the DOD to buy new weapons, it offloaded the old ones to police departments across the country through the 1033 program.  The DOD has transferred over 6 billion USD worth of material to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies as of 2021. Police killings have more than doubled in the U.S. since 9/11, with marginalized people facing the worst of it.   

Learning From the Israeli Occupation

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. turned to Israel for help with counterterrorism and homeland security. Israel and its occupation forces have trained thousands of American officers from agencies ranging from the NYPD, the FBI, the CIA, and ICE. 

During these training sessions, Americans continue to adopt and refine the Israeli occupation’s worst practices, such as racial profiling, violent tactics, protest suppression, and mass surveillance. Americans also get to witness police and military raids in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Certain U.S. law enforcement agencies have expanded this partnership after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, 2023. 

This is not the only U.S.-Israeli collaboration that has increased since the War on Terror. The U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complexes have intertwined themselves to an almost symbiotic degree. None is more exemplary than Palantir, an American military technology company. 

While Palantir has been doing business with Israel since 2017, it entered a “strategic partnership” with the occupation after it accelerated its genocide of Palestinians in October of 2023. Palantir provided the occupation with AI tools aiding in logistics, data processing, and targeting. These tools allow Israel to carry out the genocide with ruthless efficiency. Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, well aware of the death and destruction his company inflicts on Palestine, gleefully brags about how his company’s tools “on occasion, kill [enemies when necessary]”. 

Empire Turned Inwards

Donald Trump now wants a strategic partnership of his own. The administration tasked Palantir with creating a “master immigration database” to expedite deportations. The database would consist of information ranging from tax returns, employment records, immigration status, the number of children, and their respective statuses. Palantir’s advanced AI tools would be able to mine all that data and create profiles on every person who has set foot in the United States, creating a police-controlled state.

The current administration has also started building a network of immigrant detention centers with similar conditions to Abu Ghraib. In one Florida detention center, guards shackled and forced migrants to “eat like animals” on their hands and knees. Detainees have also stated that guards are torturing and sexually abusing them. Trump also wants to house migrants at Guantanamo Bay, where nearly all remaining detainees are untried and unconvicted, living relics from the War on Terror.  

Equally concerning is the fact that ICE has detained and deported American citizens. During Obama’s final year in office and the entirety of Trump’s first term, the U.S. deported 70 citizens, largely people of colour, abiding by ICE’s notoriety for racial profiling. Trump’s new “big beautiful bill” is only likely to expand ICE’s racial profiling and deportations of citizens, as the U.S. government now has ICE funded at nearly the same level as the entirety of the Canadian military. The United States now essentially has an Israeli-trained paramilitary force raiding non-white neighbourhoods across the country.  

Through decades of brutal foreign wars and the importing of their hardware, techniques, and lessons learned, the U.S. has not only caused tremendous harm abroad but at home as well. The U.S. can no longer credibly attempt to claim it is an idealized constitutional republic where liberty and rights reign supreme. America now resembles the West Bank. Where heavily armed masked agents detain, torture, and disappear people they deem do not belong. When you throw a boomerang, it always comes back.