Militarization of US Police

[Spartan_KCT]

Hello guys,

I would like to start a discussion about the so-called militarization of the police.

There's a growing debate about whether we should or should not have cops with heavy assault rifles, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles and officers that look more like soldiers in Iraq than like police officers.

This militarization is fed by the defense budgets that the government open up for 'the war against drugs' as is explained in the article below

IN MAY 2015, Barack Obama barred the federal government from providing some military equipment to American police departments. The extraordinary arsenal maintained by some departments—which includes body armour, powerful weapons and armoured vehicles—had become highly visible over the previous year, as a result of outbreaks of unrest in response to police violence. In August 2014 Darren Wilson, a police officer, shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking large local demonstrations. Two days after the shooting, tactical officers—paramilitary police generally referred to as SWAT (for Special Weapons and Tactics) teams—were called in to help clear protestors from in front of Ferguson's police department. They arrived dressed for war, in riot gear and gas masks, bearing long truncheons and automatic weapons. Americans have grown used to seeing police respond to protests with tear gas, carrying automatic weapons and sniper rifles, and riding in vehicles that would not look out of place in Baghdad or Aleppo. The days of the beat cop walking the street with nothing more than a trusty old revolver seem distant indeed. How did America's police forces become so heavily armed?

As with so much else in American governance, the explanation starts with federal cash. Every year Congress passes the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets out the Defense Department's budget and expenditures. The version passed in 1990, in the wake of a sharp rise in drug-related violence, allowed the Defense Department to transfer military gear and weapons to local police departments if they were deemed "suitable for use in counter-drug activities". Between 2002 and 2011 the Department of Homeland Security, established after the attacks of September 11th 2001, disbursed more than $35 billion in grants to state and local police forces. In addition the "1033 program" allows the Defense Department to distribute surplus equipment to local police departments for use in counter-terrorism and counter-drug activities. The American Civil Liberties Union found that the value of military equipment used by American police departments has risen from $1 million in 1990 to nearly $450 million in 2013.


For the full article, click here

I think that a lot of equipment is being used in unjust ways, as can be heard in the trailer. I don't think there should be warriors cops because they are operating within a city, I think these officers are being used way to much. I think there needs to be distinction between highly trained SWAT officers and officers that are heavily armed, with distinction I'm talking about the fact that only SWAT officers are allowed to have militaristic gear as they are involved in high risk situations.

These are just some of the opinions I got within this discussion.

I'm really curious what you guys think about this 'problem' let me know down below!