Acclimating Civilians to the Police State: Armed Military at Jones Beach, New York

A friend of mine who wishes to remain anonymous took these pictures while at the Airshow this year. I neglected to mention that while on air the other day but the photos certainly speak for themselves. I gave a write-up from what I remember him telling me about the air show so hopefully this helps a bit.

Every Memorial Day weekend at Jones Beach, Long Island, New York, a yearly air show display is brought to the public. During this year however, the military with Homeland Security occupied the board walk with soldiers in full battle garb equipped with pouches of ammunition and small arms like you would see in an Afghan or Iraqi village. In the photos below, can view the rifles in hand alongside magazine pouches equipped with magazine clips. The rifle is clearly locked and loaded and as you see in the photos, the crowds are within feet of the armed soldiers. These are the types of photos you would see come out of a narco-terror state or the Soviet Union occupation all throughout Eastern Europe during the latter part of half the 20th century. What is even more concerning is the very fact one soldier in these photos is equipped with a large 30 caliber machine gun similar to that of a SAW equipped with a small pouch drum and what appears to be ammunition located inside the drum.

Some may argue these soldiers are only there equipped with small arms at an event because this is an annual air show but as of my knowledge, no air show previous to this ever had armed soldiers occupying the boardwalk with weapons you would frequently see within occupied nations such as Iraq or Afghanistan. Is this part of a psychological operation to get people use to the concept of armed soldiers in public events or is this an operation in itself?

...Continued