Posse Comitatus. A primer and a warning.

From Wikipedia.

The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement police or peace officer powers that maintain “law and order” on non-federal property (states, their counties and municipal divisions) in the former Confederate states.

The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the United States National GuardConstitution or Congress.

under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the

From Army Times:

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the
day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of
Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or
manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
…

They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control
or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive
poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological,
radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.

Training
for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes
specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the “jaws of life” to
extract a person from a mangled vehicle; extra medical training for a
CBRNE incident; and working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how
to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.

The
1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal
package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger
Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and
nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals
without killing them.

“It’s a new modular package of nonlethal
capabilities that they’re fielding. They’ve been using pieces of it in
Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated
and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking
we were the first to get it.”

The package includes equipment to
stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or
controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.

Anyone else a touch concerned??