Transfer of Military Hardware to Police Could Lead to Abuses
August 30, 2017 5:51PM EDT Dispatches
Trump’s decision to lift restrictions part of harmful policy shift
Jasmine L. Tyler
Advocacy Director, US Program
The United States Department of Defense’s program to provide military equipment to police departments –curtailed by the Obama administration – has been given a second life under President Trump.
Originally created to assist police in the war on drugs of the 1980s, the program was cut back in the wake of the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. Police in Ferguson were widely criticized for using military hardware in heavy-handed efforts to intimidate and disperse protestors days after police fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old African American, Michael Brown.
While the Trump Administration is arguing much of the equipment is “entirely defensive in nature,” the equipment now being greenlighted includes projectile weapons, such as rifles and other firearms.
Since 1997, the DOD has shared $5-billion of surplus military defensive equipment, ranging from aircraft to battering rams and riot gear, and, prior to the Obama-era reform, even bayonets and grenade launchers. It’s clear that police departments do not have proper training to handle many of these weapons, or systems in place to track the equipment or civilian complaints about the use of the weapons.
More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/30/transfer-military-hardware-police-could-lead-abuses
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