Pro-Government Militias During Post-SHTF

Via Michael

 

I came across this article today, entitled Are Militias a Menace?  It mainly focuses on pro-government militias during times of civil war abroad, however, there are some very important takeaways from this article.  To wit:

The distinction between “gang” and “militia” — ties with the government

Unlike rebels or criminals, whose actions are necessarily illegal and opposed by the state, these groups enjoy semi-official or informal ties with the government.

Liberal use of state-backed militias (i.e., “gangs”) to abuse the populace and disabuse themselves of the blame

Their statistical findings (published here and summarized here) show that the appearance of militias is strongly correlated with violations of human rights, particularly when governments want to maximize harm to civilians while minimizing blame for the action of armed groups that are, ostensibly, “free agents.”

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