Militarizing U.S. Police

"Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies -- where police departments compete to acquire military gear that goes far beyond what most of Americans think of as law enforcement."
Republic Senator Rand Paul

Police in riot gear watch protesters in Ferguson, Mo. on Wednesday -- Jeff Roberson/The Associated Press

"I DO fear that [federal attempts to deprive his officers of state of the art, Iraq- and Afghanistan-surplus vehicles and weaponry]. The way I see it, those vehicles would either just sit and rot, or they can be taken over by agencies with a justifiable need. It's all well and good to talk about demilitarizing the police until they take it away and you miss it."
"The fact of the matter is, there has been a shift in recent years in the way that terrorists operate. Look at what happened in Mumbai. We might have to report to multiple locations."
"I don't want to be a talking head and give an opinion without all the facts. But I understand that there may be a lot of deep-rooted issues in that particular case [Ferguson, Missouri shooting]. It's important not to take one or two incidents and use a broad brush and take away those capabilities."
"There are countless examples across the country of officers who have not been trained as effectively as they should have been in how to execute a high-risk search warrant. Many officers have been killed in these sorts of operations. There are many agencies out there that only have part-time SWAT teams, and sometimes bad things can occur."
Capt. Robert Bolesta, Montgomery County, Maryland police department

"There's been a little bit of hype with departments getting M16s, MRAPs, that type of stuff. It's not for the purpose of becoming more militarized. It's for the purpose of being prepared for any type of scenario that could come our way."
Chief Matthew Schalliol, Walkerton, Indiana

So Democratic Representative Hank Johnson's announcement as an African American legislator from Atlanta that he would be introducing a bill to restrict local law-enforcement departments of the opportunity to amass high-powered ballistics and hardened-steel personnel carriers after the summer recess doesn't sit too well with local law-enforcement agencies. Their procurement of military equipment deemed no longer required with the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan would be impeded.

This is a backlash relating to those same arms and equipment used in the streets of Ferguson to confront protesters (and rioters and looters and violent thugs) after the fatal shooting of a black teen by a white police constable in a majority-black neighbourhood policed by majority-white officers where racial tensions have been fairly high up to now. Rep. Johnson made note of the fact that campus police at Ohio State University have also taken advantage of excess military gear.

Riot police stand guard as demonstrators protest the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri August 13, 2014. (Reuters / Mario Anzuoni)

When a similar bill arose for a vote in June, the 355 Congressmen representing both the Democrats and Republicans voted overwhelmingly to continue funding the Defense Logistics Agency giveaways, ended up receiving 73-percent more campaign contribution funding than the 62 who chose to vote against the bill. Clearly, the yeas had it. Public opinion seems firmly set on arming their security agencies in the face of disruptive public violence.

Capt. Bolesta argues that in Suburban Washington a mini-militia may represent precisely the requirement should a mass-scale terrorist event ever erupt. Ten citizens, he pointed out, were murdered randomly in 2002 when the Beltway Snipers terrorized the area. Capt. Bolesta comes by his views through familial inheritance. Himself a 27-year-veteran of the Montgomery County force, his father had established Baltimore's first SWAT team in the 1960s.

He explained that his own department's MRAP was in the process of being retrofitted into a "medical variant" -- a potentially life-saving task force vehicle whose use would be invaluable for the purpose of extracting casualties from an active-shooter scenario. And the Fraternal Order of Police criticized their president for stating there was "no excuse" for Missouri officers "to use excessive force against peaceful protests or to throw protesters in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights."

"I would contend that discussing police tactics from Martha's Vineyard is not helpful to ultimately calming the situation", Jim Pascol, the Fraternal Order's executive director stated to a Capital Hill newspaper. And by any definition, the protests are no longer peaceful, and the thugs and looters most certainly deserve to be tossed into jail, for unlawfully exercising their penchant for chaos and violence.