The University of Akron IdeaExchange@UAkron Akron Law Review Akron Law Journals July 2015 Can Soldiers Be Peace Officers? The aW co Disaster and the Militarization of American Law Enforcement David B. Kopel Paul M. Blackman Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Follow this and additional works at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview Part of the Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, and the State and Local Government Law Commons Recommended Citation Kopel, David B. and Blackman, Paul M. (1997) "Can Soldiers Be Peace Officers? The aW co Disaster and the Militarization of American Law Enforcement," Akron Law Review: Vol. 30 : Iss. 4 , Article 2. Available at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview/vol30/iss4/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Akron Law Journals at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The nivU ersity of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Akron Law Review by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. Kopel and Blackman: Can Soldiers Be Peace Officers? CAN SOLDIERS BE PEACE OFFICERS? THE WACO DISASTER AND THE MILITARIZATION OF AMERICAN LAW ENFORCEMENT by DAVID B. KOPEL * and PAUL M. BLACKMAN ** I. INTRODUCTION One of the most significant trends of federal law enforcement in the last fifteen years has been its militarization. The logical, perhaps inevitable, conse- quence of that militarization was seen in the disaster at Waco, Texas, resulting in the deaths of four federal agents, and seventy-six other men, women, and chil- dren.