The fatal shootings by federal agents in the United States show clear signs of democratic decline and politicisation of the police, according to Christophe Busch, historian and director of the Hannah Arendt Institute that groups five Flemish universities and attempts to forge ties between society at large and the world of academe. Busch draws comparisons with the past. ‘Playing the Hitler card is dangerous, but we must dare to expose the underlying mechanisms.’
Warning about ‘democratic decline’ in the US: ‘Mechanisms from 1933 recognisable’
Colin Clapson
Published:
Christophe Busch, historian and director of the Mechelen-based Hannah Arendt Institute, is following developments in the US with growing concern. ‘What we are seeing today with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency ICE is a historically well-known process. Existing police forces are being supplemented with new shock troops, accompanied by rapid growth, heavier weaponry, tactical teams as the norm and unlimited support from the regime. That is not “security”, it is a political police force in the making,’ he writes on his Facebook page.
These are worrying trends that show that democratic decline has begun in the US, he later explained on VRT Radio.
‘The police are a very important organisation in our society. We give them a monopoly on violence. That means we need to think carefully about their selection and training, and about the control of their armed power.’
‘However, with regard to ICE and the border police in the US, which have grown enormously – including a problematic influx of certain figures – you have to ask yourself several questions. To what extent is this expansion politically driven? To what extent is it being handled with care?’ These are two aspects that are causing things to go seriously wrong in the United States today, he argues.
Separation of powers under presssure
A healthy democracy has a separation of powers: the legislative branch (parliament), the executive branch (the government) and the judicial branch (the courts) operate independently of each other, so that no single branch has control over all decisions.
‘When incidents such as those in Minneapolis occur, you expect a certain degree of restraint from the executive branch. The judiciary should also launch an investigation. We are not seeing that here. President Trump and (Attorney General) Pam Bondi are immediately passing judgement. "This is domestic terrorism, we acted correctly,” they say. That is very worrying.’
Parallels with the 1930s
In his Facebook post, Busch draws a comparison to 1933, when Adolf Hitler was appointed as Germany’s Chancellor. ‘The mechanism we see in the US today was already familiar to us: in 1933, the SA-Hilfspolizei became “law enforcement” with an armband and a weapon, and that's exactly where the slippery slope began,’ he writes.
‘It is always dangerous to play the Hitler card,’ he continues in an interview on VRT radio. ‘If you reduce the situation to a symbol, you will not get anywhere. What needs to be done is to expose the underlying mechanisms.’ And then you see how, in 1933, Hitler's paramilitary stormtroopers were deployed as auxiliary police to maintain order, just as is happening today on the other side of the Atlantic.
'This is an acceleration of the slide from democracy to dictatorship. We see it not only in policing, but also in legislation. On 4 December, Pam Bondi issued a memorandum that makes it possible to speak of domestic terrorism in the US. However, the definition is very broad. In this way, too, we see mechanisms from the past that signal the decline of democracy re-emerging.'