How the Obama administration gives away military-grade weapons to local police [Flashback from 2014, for all the idiot liberals who falsely blame Obama's actions on Trump]

Washington Post ^ | November 25, 2014 | Max Ehrenfreund

[grundle]

Several federal programs are helping local law enforcement to acquire heavy weapons, either by making funds available or by providing the equipment directly. One program at the Pentagon transferred surplus military equipment worth nearly half a billion dollars to local police last year. Grants provided by the Department of Homeland Security total another $1 billion, and Holder's department provides hundreds of millions more.

The ACLU has called for a moratorium on the Pentagon's program, which transfers surplus military equipment, arguing that the Pentagon should not provide local police with armored personnel carriers or automatic weapons.

"At the end of the day, we are looking at the culture, the police culture," said Kanya Bennett, an attorney at the ACLU, in an interview. "In order for us to appreciate and get a full sense of the sort of abuses that come along with this military equipment, we need to step back and assess what's going on."

In several cases, the tactics that accompany military-grade weapons have led to the deaths of innocent people. A 7-year-old died in a Special Weapons and Tactics raid in Detroit in 2010, when officers forcibly entered the house where she was sleeping, deploying a flashbang and firing a bullet that struck and killed her.

[SanchoP]

The only place I’ve seen where they needed military grade weapons was Hudspeth County,Texas (Ft Hancock) where they actually got invaded by the Mexican Army. (Running security for a drug shipment.)

[Malsua]

The same thing happened with the Clinton “100,000” new cops thing in the 90s. Some went to new cops, sure. Most went to buying Pentagon surplus toys. When the local cops show up in armored vehicles, this is how they got them. I’m not a defund the cops type, but let’s demilitarize them first. After all, when you have a pack full of hammers, everything starts to look like nails.

[butlerweave]

Didn’t Obama take them back ? LOl

[bdfromlv]

Obama passed his money out as stimulus and got law enforcement to support his donors in the defense industries by giving them deals on weapons and equipment, follow the money.