President Barack Obama has ordered his administration to review the federal programs that send military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement, the New York Times reported Saturday.
The review will probe whether the programs — like the 1033 program, which sends military gear to police free of charge — should continue and, if they should, whether police receive the proper training for operating the equipment.
The programs have come under scrutiny as images have poured out of Ferguson, Mo., depicting heavily armed police forces facing off with protesters. Some lawmakers, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), are mulling legislation to reform the programs.
Obama himself said this week that the programs should be reevaluated after Ferguson.
“I think it’s probably useful for us to review how the funding has gone, how local law enforcement has used grant dollars to make sure that what they’re purchasing is stuff that they actually need,” he said at a Monday press conference. “I think there will be some bipartisan interest in reexamining some of those programs.”
It is not the gear, per se, that is the problem. It is the officers using it.
You know that’s the same argument the NRA uses, that it’s not the weapon, it’s the people using it. You aren’t going to change the people, so take the fucking war zone weapons out of the equation!
Its all part of a much bigger issue, which is the militarization of our entire country. Just look at how many holidays we currently have dedicated to the military. And over the past 10 years or so, it gotten to the point that EVERY holiday is about the military. You cannot turn on a local news show during Thanksgiving or Christmas without a story about somebody coming home from duty for instance.
The problem is when a nation becomes some obsessed with its military might, then that starts to become the preferred solution to all problems…internationally AND domestically.
I would think there should be at least a nominal cost for all the military equipment the police are getting. I mean an MRAP ain’t cheap to build.
This is what it looked like on the ground in Ferguson, image from NYT story. Imagine, you’re holding a sign and you’re facing this…