The Pentagon’s Hand-Me-Downs Helped Militarize Police. Here’s How
55 years ago

The Pentagon’s Hand-Me-Downs Helped Militarize Police. Here’s How

Wired  

The images of this past week are both inescapable and indelible: protesters flooding the streets of cities across the United States, met by police forces equipped with full body armor and tactical vehicles that vaguely resemble tanks. It’s easy enough to buy tactical gear in the US, and the Homeland Security Grant Program has funneled billions of dollars to law enforcement agencies to acquire military-grade equipment. According to the Law Enforcement Support Office, which oversees the process, over $7.4 billion of property has been transferred since the program’s inception; more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies have enrolled. “The federal government doesn’t really keep track of a lot of this equipment that goes to local law enforcement agencies,” says Anna Gunderson, a political scientist at Louisiana State University who coauthored a 2019 study that examined the effects of the 1033 program on crime rates. LEAs themselves typically only retain records for a few years, subject to their own local-level record keeping requirements,” says Kenneth Lowande, a political scientist at the University of Michigan whose research includes the 1033 program.

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History of this topic

As demand for police reform grows, military equipment program faces new scrutiny
4 years, 6 months ago

As demand for police reform grows, military equipment program faces new scrutiny

CNN  

CNN — Cell phone videos from protests around the country in recent weeks have recorded scenes that seem like they’re straight out of a warzone: Police officers decked out in body armor and gas masks, facing down protesters across tear gas-filled streets. That total, delivered through what’s known as the 1033 Program, included more than $5.3 million worth of potentially …

The Militarization Of Local Police Has Been Decades In The Making
4 years, 7 months ago

The Militarization Of Local Police Has Been Decades In The Making

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING Even before states began to deploy the National Guard and President Donald Trump unleashed federal police forces in Washington, the streets of many U.S. cities already looked as if they were swarming with soldiers. “At this point, ‘military’ is already the culture of policing,” said Peter Kraska, a professor at Eastern Kentucky University who has studied police …

Does the militarisation of US police encourage excessive force?
4 years, 7 months ago

Does the militarisation of US police encourage excessive force?

Al Jazeera  

Groups say ‘equipping police in manner more appropriate for battle may put them in mindset conflict is inevitable’. The 1033 programme, headed by the Defense Logistics Agency, the Department of Defense’s combat logistics support agency, has given domestic law enforcement at least five billion dollars in “surplus military defensive equipment” since 1997, Human Rights Watch wrote in 2017. Israel’s national …

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