Police militarization is worse than you can imagine

First reported by the marshall project:

You may have heard that the image-conscious Los Angeles Unified School District chose to return the grenade launchers it received from the Defense Department’s surplus equipment program. You probably have not heard about some of the more obscure beneficiaries of the Pentagon giveaway:

Police in Johnston, R.I., with a population less than 29,000, acquired two bomb disposal robots, 10 tactical trucks, 35 assault rifles, more than 100 infrared gun sights and two pairs of footwear designed to protect against explosive mines. The Johnson police department has 67 sworn officers.

The parks division of Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources was given 20 M-16 rifles, while the fish and wildlife enforcement division obtained another 20 M-16s, plus eight M-14 rifles and ten .45-caliber automatic pistols.

Campus police at the University of Louisiana, Monroe, received 12 M-16s to help protect the 8,811 students there (or perhaps to keep them in line).

The warden service of Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife received a small aircraft, 96 night vision goggles, 67 gun sights and seven M-14 rifles.

For more than 20 years, the Pentagon program that distributes surplus weapons, aircraft and vehicles to police departments nationwide received little attention or scrutiny. Defense Department officials closely guarded the details of which agencies across the country received which items.

Then, events in Ferguson propelled the 1033 program, as the surplus distribution is called, into the public eye.

The Pentagon quietly released data that details all tactical equipment distributed through the program, and for the first time identified the agencies that received items. The data is a national gift list of high-caliber weapons, armored vehicles, aircraft and similar military equipment, all delivered for the price of shipping and often with little civilian oversight.

The program has doled out $5 billion in equipment since 1990. Most of it was general office and maintenance equipment – shovels, copiers, computers – but the Pentagon largesse included tactical military equipment worth more than $1.4 billion, disseminated in 203,000 transfers to about 7,500 agencies. Even after Ferguson, the program continues to chug along, transferring $28 million in tactical equipment in the past three months.

As recently as October, the department’s Defense Logistics Agency, which manages the equipment distribution effort, rejected Freedom of Information Act requests for a detailed accounting of what equipment has been given to whom. The agency provided only county-by-county information about the donations. Then, on Nov. 21, the Pentagon shifted course, posting the full details of the program with no announcement.

Police departments investigated for civil rights abuses still get free military weapons.

Click here to read more.

This December the White House just released it's support of police acquiring military grade weapons & MRAPS, Click here to read the report.

Municipal police and county sheriffs’ departments comprise the majority of the agencies that receive equipment from the 1033 program, but they’re not the only ones. At least 17 school districts have been given hundreds of items.

In Los Angeles, for instance, the school district police department received a mine-resistant vehicle worth $730,000 in March, as well as three grenade launchers and more than 60 M-16s. After that was initially reported by MuckRock in September, the NAACP and other organizations called for a moratorium on the 1033 program, pending a review of agency eligibility. Facing community backlash, the Los Angeles district’s police chief indicated that he would keep the rifles but acknowledged armored vehicles and grenade launchers are not "'essential' pieces of equipment for our daily scope and mission." The school district said on Wednesday that it no longer owns the mine-resistant vehicle.

In Michigan, the Detroit Public Schools Police Department obtained six bomb disposal robots last year, in addition to three utility trucks in the last four years. The district police would not comment Wednesday on how they use the equipment and would only confirm via email their participation in the program.

More than 130 college and university police departments, from the Colorado School of Mines to Alabama A&M University, have received weaponry and equipment valued at more than $12 million.

The campus police at Southwest Virginia Community College were given a Humvee last year. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences received eight rifles and four shotguns. Florida International University got 50 M-16 rifles and a mine-resistant vehicle. Black River Technical College in Pocahontas, Ark. got a $5.3 million cargo plane and dozens of rifles and pistols.

A wide range of state agencies participate in the program, including some that oversee wildlife, parks, and conservation.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources received 184 M-16 rifles valued at $78,000. Assistant Chief Mark Rouleau of the department’s game warden division said that such high-caliber weapons are useful for his officers, who are sometimes the first to respond to incidents in rural areas.

“You’ve got to remember that our officers work alone in remote areas, and that every person we encounter has a high-powered rifle,” said Rouleau. “It’s a tactical thing. Unlike a city police officer, we generally don’t have any backup. If we get lucky, our backup is a half-hour away.”

The Arizona Game and Fish Department received more than $3.3 million in tactical equipment, including two aircraft and more than 50 gun sights.

The Defense Logistics Agency gives a “Million Dollar Customer” award to agencies that take more than $1 million in equipment. Among the 203 departments whose receipt of tactical equipment alone would make them eligible to join the club, you might correctly expect to find Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Houston, but big city departments aren’t the only ones to make the cut.

Since 2006, police in Winthrop Harbor, Ill., a village of 6,700 along the shore of Lake Michigan, has received 10 helicopters, one mine-resistant armored vehicle and two Humvees, and other equipment, worth more than $6.5 million.

In Alabama, the Oxford Police Department received $3.7 million in equipment since 2008, including 9 Humvees, two heavily armored vehicles, a utility truck and expensive aircraft equipment. Oxford has 22,000 residents and 50 sworn police officers.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2014/12/03/the-pentagon-finally-details-its-weapons-for-cops-giveaway?utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=site-placement&utm_source=featured-block&utm_content=2-112