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Just seven weeks after a violent police raid cleared away Occupy Los Angeles’ tent city on the steps of City Hall, downtown LA this week has been the site of evening military drills. The drills are significant because they are being held by the US military, jointly with the Los Angeles Police Department. According to CBS News, the joint military drills will be held in various other parts of the LA area and are among other things, “designed to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments.” Meanwhile, long time local activist Carlos Montes had a scheduled court appearance this week on 6 felony charges stemming from an FBI raid of his home last May. The raid was conducted by an LA County Sheriff’s SWAT team accompanied by Federal FBI agents. Veteran journalist Chris Hedges, writing about Montes last year noted, “in the eyes of the state we are increasingly no longer citizens with constitutional rights but enemy combatants.” The increasing collusion between federal agents, the military, and local law enforcement is a disturbing trend, underscored by the recent signing into law of the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the government to imprison Americans on suspicion of terrorism, detain them indefinitely, deny them habeas corpus, and even transport them to off-site facilities. The fears of a national security state come at the same time as a mass movement of citizens around the nation are decrying wealth inequality and persistently shining a spotlight on corporate and monied interests through actions against home foreclosures, student tuition hikes, or anti-worker legislation, and more. What are the implications of state repression in a democracy, locally and nationally?

GUEST: Hamid Khan, Soros Justice Fellow working on a campaign to end LAPD’s Special Order 11, former Executive Director of the South Asian Network

There will be a public town hall meeting about domestic surveillance on Saturday March 3rd at the SEIU Hall near USC, 828 W. Washington Blvd, Los Angeles. Visit www.stoplapdspying.org or call 562-230-4578 for more information.