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A police officer watches over demonstrators
protesting the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown on August 13,
2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Over the last decade many state and local law enforcement agencies have become increasingly militarized. Kara Dansky, a senior counsel at the ACLU and one of the authors of the report War Comes Home,
explains how and why federal programs have created incentives for law
enforcement to use paramilitary tactics and military grade weapons,
including mine-resistant armored vehicles.
Protesters in Ferguson, Missouri clashed with heavily armed
police this week. “What we’re seeing in Ferguson today is, in many ways,
a reflection of the militarization of policing that’s been happening
across America for decades,” Dansky said. The ACLU now estimates that
there are 50,000 paramilitary police raids across the United States each
year. That’s about 135 raids every day.
Many of these raids are being carried out in order to serve search warrants, often for drugs. “We found a shocking number of incidents where the police would raid a home, traumatize people within the home and not find the weapons or drugs they claimed would be there,” Dansky said. These raids also disproportionately occur in communities of color.
Under the Department of Defense’s 1033 Program, state and local law enforcement agencies are being given military grade equipment, free of charge. This can include guns, helicopters, night vision goggles and, Dansky added, “really anything that the military has in its arsenal that [the DoD] deems necessary for law enforcement.” The ACLU has identified that more than 600 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles have been placed with police departments around the country. In addition to receiving free military equipment, state and local law enforcement agencies can also apply for Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security grants to purchase weapons directly from manufacturers.
Dansky noted that police are being trained to view towns as battlefields and operate as though they’re going into combat, and that police departments have a built-in incentive to use military grade equipment. “The program requires police departments that get this kind of weaponry to use it within one year,” she said.
Many of these raids are being carried out in order to serve search warrants, often for drugs. “We found a shocking number of incidents where the police would raid a home, traumatize people within the home and not find the weapons or drugs they claimed would be there,” Dansky said. These raids also disproportionately occur in communities of color.
Under the Department of Defense’s 1033 Program, state and local law enforcement agencies are being given military grade equipment, free of charge. This can include guns, helicopters, night vision goggles and, Dansky added, “really anything that the military has in its arsenal that [the DoD] deems necessary for law enforcement.” The ACLU has identified that more than 600 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles have been placed with police departments around the country. In addition to receiving free military equipment, state and local law enforcement agencies can also apply for Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security grants to purchase weapons directly from manufacturers.
Dansky noted that police are being trained to view towns as battlefields and operate as though they’re going into combat, and that police departments have a built-in incentive to use military grade equipment. “The program requires police departments that get this kind of weaponry to use it within one year,” she said.
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Comments [18]
The prime reasons local law
enforcement agencies have become increasingly militarized are simple and
practical. Just about any person, from law abiding citizen, to violent
gangs, to radical anti-government anarchist, has easy access to military
assault rifles / ammunition, body armour, bomb making and detonation
instructions on the internet,... These items can be purchased with
virtually no backround check over the internet, unregulated private gun
sales, illegal straw purchases from interstate gun traffickers,... Law
enforcement, out of necessity due this reality, needs to be fully
equipped to engage the threats posed by today's easy access to weapons.
Any law enforcement agency that simply equips it's personnel with .35
caliber revolvers is certain to be ineffective against today's criminal
elements.
Aug. 14 2014 05:35 PM
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Does anyone think the NYPD doesnt
have at least 6 (likely more) MWRAPs in their garages...? I sure
dont...I would be very surprised if they didnt...as the NYPD anti-terror
force is one of the better trained and better armed, and well traveled
of any of them in the US.
Aug. 14 2014 02:28 PM
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Joanne, because the law has
nothing to do with how the local police arm or train themselves. It
deals with the recognized military forces.
Anon - well we live in a gun culture, what is to be expected? And what better way to use the already up-trained returning vets, many of whom will simply go into a police job as the easier path to employment. Who then work next to the "Super Cop" types who have an all things cop and gun fetishes.
Smokey, because after their Academy training, most cops only perform their gun qualifying work, and rarely take advanced training in armed confrontation, or better gun handling techniques.
One of the bigger issues not raised is what sort of advanced training are regular cops getting when their precinct arms/armors-up? My guess, not too much. Maybe some "vendor" training, but nothing more. Which means anxious, under-trained cops with greater firepower, many of them white in non-white neighborhoods, which will mean more harm then any perceived good, as well as more cover-ups and nondisciplinary actions. Because, you know all cops are perfect, and to critique them now is to be unpatriotic, as all cops now bask in the glow of Hero of those who died, or were involved on 9-11 at the WTC.
Which of course is the epicenter of how the US citizenry entered the Age of Apathy.
Anon - well we live in a gun culture, what is to be expected? And what better way to use the already up-trained returning vets, many of whom will simply go into a police job as the easier path to employment. Who then work next to the "Super Cop" types who have an all things cop and gun fetishes.
Smokey, because after their Academy training, most cops only perform their gun qualifying work, and rarely take advanced training in armed confrontation, or better gun handling techniques.
One of the bigger issues not raised is what sort of advanced training are regular cops getting when their precinct arms/armors-up? My guess, not too much. Maybe some "vendor" training, but nothing more. Which means anxious, under-trained cops with greater firepower, many of them white in non-white neighborhoods, which will mean more harm then any perceived good, as well as more cover-ups and nondisciplinary actions. Because, you know all cops are perfect, and to critique them now is to be unpatriotic, as all cops now bask in the glow of Hero of those who died, or were involved on 9-11 at the WTC.
Which of course is the epicenter of how the US citizenry entered the Age of Apathy.
Aug. 14 2014 02:15 PM
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There was also a case in NY in which a woman died of a heart attack when a flash-bang grenade was thrown into her home.
Aug. 14 2014 02:04 PM
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If the victims have any money, it may be seized in the raid.
You then have to sue to get it back.
But they took the money with which you might have hired a lawyer.
Another thing you should email your Fed Reps against:
https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/end-asset-forfeiture/
You then have to sue to get it back.
But they took the money with which you might have hired a lawyer.
Another thing you should email your Fed Reps against:
https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/end-asset-forfeiture/
Aug. 14 2014 02:02 PM
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Leonard, there were tanks on the
street of Manhattan on the morning of 9/11/2011, the tenth anniversary.
I had attended a beautiful and peaceful dance performance by the
Buglisi Dance Company on the Lincoln Center Plaza. Leaving the plaza, I
felt uplifted and optimistic, but then walking home up Broadway I saw
that the NYPD had stationed tanks along the side streets above Lincoln
Center. By the time I got home, I was totally bummed out and disgusted
with the Bloomberg Administration and Ray Kelly and their response to
9/11.
Aug. 14 2014 01:58 PM
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Doesn't the undermining of trust in the police lead to underreporting of crime, making it look as if these tactics reduce crime?
Aug. 14 2014 01:57 PM
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The excuse for no-knock warrants was to keep the drugs from being flushed down the toilet.
People die in these violent raids.
One raid was to find a person who had defaulted on a student loan.
People die in these violent raids.
One raid was to find a person who had defaulted on a student loan.
Aug. 14 2014 01:53 PM
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I was there when the tank came to
take us out of our home for many years on 13th Street here in NYC. They
called us squatters, when we rebuilt the entire structure. Now it is
rented for $8,000 a month per apartment.
Aug. 14 2014 01:52 PM
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Ask your Federal representative to end this war on drugs.
https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/drugs/
https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/drugs/
Aug. 14 2014 01:50 PM
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Sounds an awful lot like facism
to me - what is happening to us? I have some ideas, but they are not
pleasant and require more than 'comment space' to explain. Besides, I
hope I am wrong.
Aug. 14 2014 01:50 PM
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Good question, it seems a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.
Aug. 14 2014 01:48 PM
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The war on drugs is the excuse for all this. We can end this war on civilians if we end the war on drugs.
Aug. 14 2014 01:48 PM
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Even without military gear, most
NYPD confrontations with someone armed (or assumed to be armed) end up
in a hail of bullets - not to wound but to kill. This is like
sanctioned execution.
Aug. 14 2014 01:48 PM
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This is insanity. We wonder why
we don't have money for universal health care in this country, or
quality public education, or affordable housing. Imagine if the money
being used to buy these weapons were used for other purposes.
Aug. 14 2014 01:46 PM
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The flash bang grenade thrown into a child's crib.
http://www.salon.com/2014/06/24/a_swat_team_blew_a_hole_in_my_2_year_old_son/
http://www.salon.com/2014/06/24/a_swat_team_blew_a_hole_in_my_2_year_old_son/
Aug. 14 2014 01:45 PM
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The flash bang grenade into a child's crib.
Aug. 14 2014 01:44 PM
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Can you ask why the ACLU or other
groups have not yet challenged the militarization of USA police forces
as a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act ? And if this is planned for
the near future in court?
Aug. 14 2014 01:38 PM
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