Pubdate: Fri, 22 Aug 2014
Source: Daily Review (Towanda, PA)
Copyright: 2014 The Daily Review
Contact:  http://www.thedailyreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1015
Author: David Love, MCT News Service
Page: A4

MILITARIZATION IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY

The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and the heavy-handed
police tactics that have followed point to a growing problem in this
country: the threat of a police state that endangers not only public
safety, but democracy itself.

After the fatal shooting of the unarmed Brown by Ferguson officer
Darren Wilson, local law enforcement descended upon the city like an
occupying force, complete with military weapons, tear gas, rubber
bullets and armored personnel carriers.

Police assaulted peaceful, nonviolent protesters, arrested Antonio
French, a St. Louis alderman, and tear-gassed Missouri state Sen.
Maria Chappelle-Nadal.

And police were hard on reporters, too, arresting several,
confiscating the equipment from one of them, and even threatening to
kill another.

The militarization of the police is not unique to Ferguson. Thanks to
a federal program called 1033, the government authorized the
distribution of $4.3 billion in surplus military materials to local
law-enforcement agencies. The equipment includes items such as
pistols, automatic rifles, flash-bang or stun grenades, silencers,
armored drones and armored vehicles used in Iraq and Afghanistan known
as MRAPs (Mine-Resistant Armored Protected). Police departments that
want an MRAP need only fill out a one-page form.

According to a report from the American Civil Liberties Union, "War
Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing,"
federal programs provide police officers with wartime weapons and
tactics, which they use disproportionately on communities of color,
and with no public debate or oversight. Most of these assaults are
drug raids on people's homes.

"The militarization of American policing is evident in the training
that police officers receive, which encourages them to adopt a
'warrior' mentality and think of the people they are supposed to serve
as enemies, as well as in the equipment they use," the report says.

Between 2010 and 2013, St. Louis County law-enforcement agencies
received 12 5.56 mm rifles and six .45caliber pistols from the
Department of Defense. Most recently, Ferguson received two military
vehicles, a trailer and a generator under the program.

And in recent years, the St. Louis County Police Department and the
St. Louis Police Department - along with local, state and federal
agencies - have received counterterrorism training by the Israeli
National Police and Israeli Defense Force, which have years of
experience occupying Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and
suppressing their rights.

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., has introduced legislation (the Stop
Militarizing Law Enforcement Act) that would prohibit the transfer of
certain military-grade equipment from the Pentagon to your
neighborhood cops.

Police are community servants, not mercenaries. And when they view the
community as a wartime enemy, then we are truly approaching a police
state.

We must demilitarize the cops now.
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