I will preface this by saying I don’t think anyone at TPM at least is saying it’s either/or at that ‘militarization’ caused the situation in Ferguson. But this struck me as an important take on Ferguson from TPM Reader GJ …
Ferguson Is About Racism, Not Police Militarization
The idea that some Bush era homeland security program giving police camo pants and armored trucks is what led to the events in Ferguson is absurd.
Police militarization is an important issue, but it’s not the cause of things in Ferguson. The images coming out of there could have come out of any of the hundreds of crackdowns on Black communities in America going back well over a century.
Pushing this militarization angle lets the cops and America as a whole off easy. And it won’t change a damned thing. The police regularly do this to Black folks, and were doing it long before they got their hands on surplus military goods.
