Senate Armed Services Chair Carl Levin (D-MI) said Friday the chamber “will review” the so-called 1033 program under which the Pentagon transfers surplus military equipment to local law enforcement.
“Congress established this program out of real concern that local law enforcement agencies were literally outgunned by drug criminals. We intended this equipment to keep police officers and their communities safe from heavily armed drug gangs and terrorist incidents. Before the defense authorization bill comes to the Senate floor, we will review this program to determine if equipment provided by the Defense Department is being used as intended,” Levin said.
His statement comes amid a national outcry over images of a militarized police force in Ferguson cracking down on civilians protesting the police shooting an unarmed 18-year-old black man last Saturday. On Thursday, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) introduced legislation to prohibit Pentagon transfers of certain military-grade equipment to local law enforcement.
Levin will step down in January; he isn’t seeking reelection.
Glad to know that something is being done about this, hope to never be stopped at tank-point for going 5 miles over the speed limit.
This “outgunned by drug criminals” line is getting old. I can’t recall a gun battle between police and drug criminals in my area’s recent past just a massive increase in cheap heroin’s availability and the resulting impact on families and the community under the well-armed noses of the stealthed Barbie cops…
Predictions on who will be the first Republican to argue that repeal of the 1033 program would be a violation of the Second Amendment?
that’s a start
Yep. It’s getting old because it dates back to the '80s era ‘War on Drugs’ and the '90s era ‘Tough on Crime’ bullshit. Things really started to get crazy with the '00s era ‘Small towns need to protect themselves from Al-Qaeda’ craze.