a feb. 2014 artical
The United States Department of Defense has given out 165 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles under its national military surplus program. Police have requested an additional 731 mraps. Authorities in Fargo and its surrounding county have spent about $8 million to equip local police departments with military-style hardware, according to Andrew Becker and G. W. Schulz of the Center for Investigative Reporting. Every squad car in the city now carries a military-style machine gun. Officers have Kevlar helmets able to withstand battlefield-grade ammunition.
In Montgomery County, Texas, the sheriff’s department now owns a $300,000 pilotless
surveillance drone, like the ones used to hunt down al Qaeda terrorists in the Middle East.
In Des Moines, Iowa, police bought two $180,000 bomb-disarming robots.
In Arizona, at least one sheriff is now the proud owner of a surplus Army tank.
An Associated Press investigation of the Defense Department’s military surplus program has found
that over $4 billion worth of equipment has been distributed to local police forces since 1990—
everything from bayonets to Humvees.
This military surplus program is two decades old, but the Obama administration has expanded it
drastically. In fiscal year 2011, the Pentagon gave away a record $500 million in military gear, which,
according to the program’s director, surpassed “the previous mark by several hundred million dollars.”
Even more shocking than the $4 billion in military hardware given to local police by the Pentagon
is the $34 billion in anti-terror grants given to local police by the Department of Homeland Security.
This grant money, awarded with little oversight from Congress, has put advanced equipment in
the hands of civilian officers and allowed local police departments to transform into small militarized forces.
Why all this firepower? What sorts of events are your local police preparing for?