cbsnews | Washington lawmakers let out a collective gasp
on Thursday after seeing startling images of police officers decked out
with combat gear and tanks to respond to largely peaceful protesters in
Ferguson, Missouri.
While there may have been some looters and
violent individuals among the demonstrators who gathered to protest the
killing of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown, the police looked more
equipped to enter a war zone than a protest, liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and conservative Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.,
agreed. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement, "At a time
when we must seek to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the local
community, I am deeply concerned that the deployment of military
equipment and vehicles sends a conflicting message."
"So much of the militarization of policing is fueled by federal
programs, I think it's important for the federal government to take the
lead here," ACLU criminal justice expert Kara Dansky told CBS News.
Already, Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., has produced legislation that
would put some constraints on the federal program that allows the
Pentagon to give police forces equipment for free. Johnson's bill
represents just one step Washington could take to address an issue that
he's been warning about for months.
"Something potentially
sinister is happening across America, and we should stop and take notice
before it changes the character of our country forever," Johnson
co-wrote in a USA Today op-ed
in March. "County, city and small-town police departments across the
country are now acquiring free military-grade weapons that could
possibly be used against the very citizens and taxpayers that not only
fund their departments but who the police are charged with protecting."
The
congressman made note of the several towns, and even at least one
college (Ohio State University), that have acquired Mine-Resistant,
Ambush-Protected vehicles (or MRAPs) in just the last few months thanks
to the Pentagon's 1033 program. The program was approved by Congress in
the 1990s and has since given police forces more than $4.3 billion worth of property such as MRAPs, pistols, automatic rifles, and flashbang grenades.
"Why is there surplus, especially when the Defense Department is
threatening to cut jobs anytime Congress talks about defense cuts as
part of sequestration or the Budget Control Act?"
Johnson asked in his op-ed. "The primary reason is that we're drawing
down from two major equipment-laden wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
while some of this equipment is being destroyed in the war zone, at a loss of billions in American taxpayer dollars, much of it is now being returned to the U.S."
On
top of receiving equipment directly from the 1033 program, police
forces can buy equipment like drones and MRAPs with terrorism grants
from the Department of Homeland Security. The department has doled out
$34 billion in grants since the program started after 9/11.
In addition to limiting transfers in the 1033 program, Johnson's bill would call for some accountability in the program.
"One
of the big issues that inspired this legislation is some of the smaller
equipment, the assault weapons, were unaccounted for, they were given
away to friends," Michael Shank of the Friends Committee on National
Legislation told CBS News. "Just the accountability of these free
weapons going to police chiefs and police forces was really
problematic."
At one point, the office that oversees the 1033
program suspended the transfer of firearms to police forces because
there were so many problems, the Associated Press reported last year,
such as former military firearms being sold on eBay. In New York last year, lawmakers thought the job of tracking equipment from the 1033 program could be handled by an unpaid intern.
Johnson's
bill would prohibit the Defense Department from giving any more
equipment to an agency that couldn't certify the whereabouts of prior
equipment it received.
While Congress considers actions to reform the program, the administration could act on its own, Danksy said.
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