Obama
has ordered a review, after events in Missouri:
Troubled by images of heavily armed
police facing off protesters in Ferguson, Mo., President Obama is ordering a
review of federal programs that help law enforcement agencies buy military
equipment.
Obama wants to know whether the
programs are “appropriate” for local policing and whether police are given the
training and guidance needed to use military-grade equipment properly, a senior
administration official said Saturday.
It would be nice to think that this review will remove
military hardware from all of the police and similar forces on US soil, but it won’t. I suspect it won’t remove much of any of it
(a nice false flag about now will take this question off of the table).
But Michael Brown wasn’t run over by a tank; he was shot by
a firearm…six times, according to reports.
To my knowledge, none of the 5,000 killed by police since9/11 were gunned down by Apache helicopter.
Remove all of the military hardware and none of this will
change.
It isn’t the weapon; it is the man behind the weapon. It is this that must change. You want to ensure that officers have enough “training
and guidance”? Start with the weapon contained
between their ears.
But Obama won’t review this, I betcha.
You are right on the money. If one says they need more training, does that mean they were using the equipment inefficiently in Ferguson? They should have been better trained to used their weapons with more accuracy? Does any of that make us safer?
ReplyDeleteWe don't need police better trained in violent law enforcement. More training increases the itch to put that training into practice. It literally becomes part of the catalyst to push a tense situation to a violent resolution. Something about a hammer making everything look like a nail...
"Something about a hammer making everything look like a nail..."
DeleteIt is interesting that you write this. A non-American friend asked me if I was surprised at how events were transpiring in Ferguson. I said I was not surprised; the police were doing exactly what they have been trained to do.