Author Topic: Pentagon weaponry in St. Louis County: Updated Column  (Read 317 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline mystery-ak

  • Owner
  • Administrator
  • ******
  • Posts: 381,842
  • Gender: Female
  • Let's Go Brandon!
Pentagon weaponry in St. Louis County: Updated Column
« on: August 14, 2014, 05:20:11 pm »
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/08/13/ferguson-police-michael-brown-militarization-column/14006383/

 David Mastio and Kelsey Rupp 11:22 a.m. EDT August 14, 2014
Department of Defense provided surplus military vehicles, rifles, pistols to local police departments.

UPDATE: St. Louis County law enforcement agencies received twelve 5.56 millimeter rifles and six .45 caliber pistols from the Department of Defense between Aug. 2, 2010, and Feb. 13, 2013, a Missouri public safety official confirmed Thursday. Ferguson, Mo., is within St. Louis County. The Pentagon allows information on "tactical" equipment to be released only at a county level, so which police department(s) in the county received the weaponry is not available.

Pentagon fueled Ferguson Confrontation

The Pentagon might not have boots on the ground in Ferguson, Mo., where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot by police on Saturday, but it does have wheels on the street.

Michelle McCaskill, media relations chief at the Defense Logistics Agency, confirms that the Ferguson Police Department is part of a federal program called 1033 that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars of surplus military equipment to civilian police forces across the United States. The materials range from small items, such as pistols and automatic rifles, to heavy armored vehicles such as the MRAPs used in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"In 2013 alone, $449,309,003.71 worth of property was transferred to law enforcement," the agency's website states.

According to McCaskill, the most recent transfer of military equipment from the Department of Defense to small Ferguson was in November and included two vehicles as well as a trailer and a generator. Details on the vehicles and their intended uses have not been released by the Pentagon. Information on any prior transfers is also unavailable.

USATODAY

Jesse Jackson: There's a 'Ferguson' near you

A state public safety official told USA TODAY that the Pentagon does not allow detailed information on "tactical" equipment to be released at a police force level, only at a county level. According to a document provided by the official, police forces in the same county as Ferguson received advanced rifle sights and night vision equipment between 2012 and 2014.

There is no evidence that any such equipment has yet been used in the Brown case and its aftermath. But such "police militarization" is just one element of an often toxic relationship between minority communities and local police.

Since the creation of the 1033 program by Congress in the early 1990s, the program has distributed $4.3 billion of excess equipment, ranging from innocuous office supplies to bomb-disposing robots and other advanced technology. The flood of military supplies — along with the continuing drug war and grant programs from other federal agencies that provide military-style equipment — has pushed the culture of police forces far from its law-enforcement roots.

Indeed, the motto of the 1033 program is "From Warfighter to Crimefighter."

So it is not a surprise that police officers often seem prepared for war. In Ferguson, that change is most dramatically revealed in the images of camouflage-wearing police officers with assault rifles, body armor and multiple extra magazines facing unarmed protesters with their hands preemptively raised in the air.

The disturbing trend of police militarization permits law enforcement agencies to view people in their communities as threats, rather than as citizens with rights, reports TheWashington Post's Radley Balko, who has covered the militarization of the police extensively.

Elsewhere in Missouri, agencies participating in the 1033 program have acquired "aircraft (both fixed wing and rotary) and four-wheel drive vehicles (such as pickup trucks, blazers, ambulances and armored personnel carriers)," according to the state's Department of Public Safety.

If there's one thing a community in turmoil does not need is for anyone to turn up the heat as protesters and police face off and tempers simmer. But before a local police officer fired his first shot at the unarmed teen, the U.S. military helped make sure there was plenty of fuel to bring things to a boil.


video at link
Proud Supporter of Tunnel to Towers
Support the USO
Democrat Party...the Party of Infanticide

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
-Matthew 6:34

Offline sinkspur

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 28,567
Re: Pentagon weaponry in St. Louis County: Updated Column
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2014, 05:26:18 pm »
Given the general dumbing-down of law enforcement throughout the country, it should bother everyone that sophisticated military equipment is in the hands of double-digit IQ'd hotheads who, in many cases, never graduated high school. 

This is the worst crop of cops I've seen in my lifetime, and the willingness of their superiors to cover for them and excuse often illegal acts is appalling.
Roy Moore's "spiritual warfare" is driving past a junior high without stopping.

Offline GourmetDan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7,277
Re: Pentagon weaponry in St. Louis County: Updated Column
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2014, 05:52:31 pm »

I wonder why the msm is using these riots to push the 'police militarization' meme now?

All together now...


"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left." - Ecclesiastes 10:2

"The sole purpose of the Republican Party is to serve as an ineffective alternative to the Democrat Party." - GourmetDan

Offline sinkspur

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 28,567
Re: Pentagon weaponry in St. Louis County: Updated Column
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2014, 07:10:00 pm »
I wonder why the msm is using these riots to push the 'police militarization' meme now?

All together now...

It's about time they did.  There is no reason why a podunk place like Ferguson, Mo. needs an MWRAP.
Roy Moore's "spiritual warfare" is driving past a junior high without stopping.