Colleen Curry at Vice
writes about the news Monday that President Obama has
signed an executive order that bans certain military items—grenade launchers, high-caliber weapons, armored vehicles, etc.—from being given or sold to local police agencies. The order also imposes greater control over the distribution of other items. Local civilian authorities, town councils or mayors, will have to give permission to their police departments to apply for some of the military goods.
"Technically this doesn't demilitarize police departments, but what it does its put more brakes on the funding streams that support those," Sam Bieler, a research associate in the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, told VICE News.
"Before they would have been able to just get the gear. Now, if they want a grenade launcher, they have to pay for it out of local money, and once costs come into play, you start to get a lot more thought about what they really need versus what's a nice toy," Bieler said.
Though Obama has outlined clear guidelines for the program, there could still be pushback from the defense industry, which has benefitted from the federal government selling and giving away equipment to police departments and therefore needing to purchase new gear frequently, according to Tim Lynch, director of the Project on Criminal Justice at the CATO Institute. [...]
"The bigger item for me is that there needs to be more local control over the process, someone from the mayor's office, a civilian who decides what material police can have. That's really going to be one of the most significant changes we get out of this whole process, putting civilians back in control," Bieler said.
"American policing is so much a local enterprise, done at township level, so how much of a change this makes in American policing is going to be very dependent on how town councils and mayors and police chiefs decide to go to respond to this order," he added.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2011—Oil-subsidy reduction dies in procedural vote, Reid vows to bring it back in budget negotiations:
It was a procedural measure requiring 60 affirmative votes, as explained ahead of time by David Waldman. Even with the Senate's two independents and both Republican Senators from Maine on board, there was no way it could pass. So, S. 940, the Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act, bit the dust late Tuesday, with only 52 votes in favor of a motion that would have allowed the bill to be debated. Three Democrats joined the GOP side.
Sneer at forcing a filibuster as being nothing more than political theater if you want. But this was one of those worthwhile instances for Democrats to make Republicans publicly and at length defend their indefensible stance. In this case, they stood opposed to even discussing the merits of a Democratic bill to keep Americans from having to shell out $2 billion a year in tax "incentives" to the world's five largest private oil giants. Companies that made $36 billion in first-quarter profits. Companies for whom ending these giveaways works out to 1.4 percent of their annual profits. Annual profits bolstered by motorists paying 38 percent more for gasoline than they were last year at this time.
Several Republicans who voted not to talk about S. 940 have in the past said they favored ending some or all oil-company giveaways. However, faced with glares from Grover Norquist at Americans for Tax Reform, they closed ranks Tuesday. All except for Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.
Tweet of the Day
Welcome to @Twitter, @POTUS! One question: Does that username stay with the office? #askingforafriend
— @billclinton
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show: Gang shootout in Waco, but police response seems... weird.
Greg Dworkin rounds up morning news: Congress stalls on ISIS war authorization; Jeb shocks all in opposing marriage equality, supporting VA reform; Hillary tacks "left," meaning "center"; continuing Jeb gaffe fallout, with which Rubio in particular seems to struggle; Walkermentum not happening; Greg's "why does Jeb want to run?" theory catches on, and; your mandatory "Dems in disarray" entry. Tennessee grows a terrorist! Ted Nugent says kids' GunFAIL is a "big lie," reality intervenes. US raid takes out ISIS "oil minister." And did you know ISIS has a 5-star hotel?
High Impact Posts • Top Comments • The Evening Blues
Overnight News Digest