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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFederal Officials Rethink Giving Excess Military Gear To Police
Federal Officials Rethink Giving Excess Military Gear To Police
AP | By TAMI ABDOLLAH and ERIC TUCKER
Posted: 08/16/2014
WASHINGTON (AP) After a decade of sending military equipment to civilian police departments across the country, federal officials are reconsidering the idea in light of the violence in Ferguson, Missouri.
The public has absorbed images of heavily armed police, snipers trained on protesters and tear gas plumes. Against that backdrop, Attorney General Eric Holder said that when police and citizens need to restore calm, "I am deeply concerned that the deployment of military equipment and vehicles sends a conflicting message."
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said police responses like that in Ferguson have "become the problem instead of the solution." Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., said he will introduce legislation to reverse police militarization.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said his committee will review the program to determine if the Defense Department's surplus equipment is being used as intended.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/16/police-militarization-_n_5684233.html?1408198904&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Warpy
(111,339 posts)This horseshit has been going on since Nixon's paranoia about a few scruffy college kids got him thinking about bypassing Posse Comitatus by giving war toys to cops.
Unfortunately, all those neat toys got the local police dreaming up ways to use them. Now what we have in a lot of this country is an occupying army, not a police force. SWAT gear and military hardware are used first, not as an absolute last resort.
Yes, that hardware like the APC needs to be returned, dismantled, and sold for scrap. The SWAT toys need to be locked up unless they can find a judge to approve their specific use in a specific case. Mostly, dressing the police like Robo Cop to provide anonymity has to stop. The cops won't believe it now, but all that shit has made people trust them less and less and made their jobs much harder.
Around here, the cause celebre that brought in the Feds was a homeless, mentally ill man who was surrendering peacefully until some knothead tossed a flash-bang at him. He ended up shot in the back. Had that grenade been locked up back at the cop shop, Boyd would still very likely be alive.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)are afraid of the people of our own country or was it the bottom line: money.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)gets yanked.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)gristy
(10,667 posts)What do they mean by this? That the gov't bought more than they need and so they need to unload it? Bull.
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)But that doesn't mean that those left over things aren't being replaced with newer more modern and expensive stuff from the marketeers of the military industrial complex.
gejohnston
(17,502 posts)they should repossess all of that crap while they are at it.
alp227
(32,052 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,417 posts)Thanks for the thread, babylonsister.
littlemissmartypants
(22,803 posts)Time for our do nothing congress to show their true colors on this.
Love, Peace and the Righteous Fight.
~ Lmsp