A common trope of military movies is ‘holding fire’ – sometimes phrased as ‘Wait until you see the whites of their eyes’.
The time to hold may now be past. assuming that Sean Miller is reading the DoD Directive correctly.
I’m not as sure – go here to read the Directive in full.
From what I read, the suggested assistance was primarily intelligence-related. That’s a function of Defense – in the field, in foreign locations – that has been a major part of operations. Most local law enforcement have experience with ‘snitches’ or, as they like to call them, CIs, for Confidential Informants.
The veracity or reliability of the CIs varies widely. In the hands of an experienced officer or deputy (particularly one who has had DoD training in that use), it may be quite valuable. One major factor in the success or failure of the information is the expertise of the soldier in assessing the information, and comparing its strength compared to that of other assets.
But CIs are, in many cases, notoriously unreliable. Officers who want more ‘busts’ will hype the CI – often leading to attacking innocent people in surprise raids. Such attacks have lead to massive financial penalties for the cities or counties involved, which is one very good argument for taking away qualified immunity, and replacing it with mandatory liability insurance for law enforcement. Such liability insurance should NOT have the cost be based on averages of incidents, but on the individual’s records.
The biggest argument against this use of the military is Posse Comitatus. In the reasonable event of attack, the normal response is to defend, which would put the assigned military at risk of stepping over the line.
