How the Clintons Militarized the Police and Expanded Military Industrial Complex

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Wednesday February 24, 2016 · 10:52 AM PST

2016/02/24 · 10:52

In the summer of 2014, I considered myself to be aware. The problem was that so much was going on in my life that my emotional turmoil constantly prevented me from diving too deep into politics, social awareness, etc. There was a turning point, though, when I watched a video of Ferguson, Missouri, where the police were driving in tank-like trucks and shooting gas cans at the protesters. That’s when I realized that I was nowhere near as aware of the issues as I needed to be.

Over the last year and a half, I’ve built my mountain of knowledge to the point where I write articles regularly and debate people online until my neck hurts. I’m now actively involved in politics and find myself always craving to know more.

One thing that has really stuck with me is this concept of The New Jim Crow. This concept that the era of mass incarceration and the war on drugs have created the new version of a law I was taught we defeated, has struck my heart in a way that I really struggle to find the words for. I grew up learning about Jim Crow and how we over-came that nonsense, meanwhile, in the span of my life time, 1995 to present, we have implemented the new form of this nonsense. I talk about this a lot, at least once a day almost, because it is such a major issue being involved in politics, knowing that so many people have lost their right to vote.

Today, I was talking with my father about this subject, specifically about how the militarization of the police is a part of The New Jim Crow. He mentioned something that, honestly, I’m disappointed hadn’t yet even occurred to me, but am extremely upset about now that I have heard about it. Before I get into this, you should know a bit about my father.

MY THOUGHT WAS, ‘IF YOU ARE GOING TO CREATE THE NEW JIM CROW, THEN YOU HAVE TO ENABLE THOSE WHO ENFORCE IT.”

Born into a family of 7 children, a father in the military, and a mother who would unfortunately suffer health issues for most of his life, my father grew up not only in a military home but in a home where everyone needed to contribute if everyone wanted to get by. This means that when you were old enough to work, you got a job. From the earliest age my father had more responsibility than even I do now. With this, he followed in his father’s footsteps, and became a correction officer when he was 21. After seeing 3 brothers and his father join, he decided that the job security was too good to pass up, and eventually went on to be the youngest to ever make Sergeant, youngest ever Lieutenant, and turned down Captain, but still would have been the youngest.

While talking about the militarization of the police, and I’ll paraphrase:

“I remember in the 1990s, suddenly we could apply for military equipment, but there was a lot of paper work involved and was a long, bureaucratic process. Then later in the decade it suddenly became really easy, everyone got excited and was putting in for anything and everything.”

This was really intriguing to me as someone who so prominently is against the Clinton’s specifically because of their contribution, or as I should say, their creation of The New Jim Crow. It made sense to me that, along with their 1994 crime bill to help take on the “super-predators” as Hillary so lovingly stated it, they would pass a bill to help the police department enforce The New Jim Crow by making the military surplus available to them. My thought was, ‘if you are going to create the new Jim Crow, then you have to enable those who enforce it.” We both did research on this subject and here is everything we found.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), is a house bill specifying the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense that has to be passed every year. When the NDAA was passed in 1990, section 1208 authorized the transfer of military surplus to local police departments due to the reduction in force (RIF) of the current military. It also ensured that the final disposition of the equipment was open to the public. It was decided that the police departments needed assistance in combating the “War on Drugs” and by making military equipment available, they could make warriors in the “war.” The NDAA of 1996, under the Clinton administration, section 1033 altered section 1208, broadening the scope of available equipment and made final disposition of equipment a national defense secret.

According to the Wikipedia page for 1033, as of 2014, 8,000 local law enforcement agencies participated in the reutilization program that has transferred $5.1 billion in military hardware from the Department of Defense to local American law enforcement agencies since 1997. Also, according to the U.S. Government's Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services (DLA), “material worth $449 million was transferred in 2013 alone. The most commonly obtained item from the 1033 program is ammunition. Some of the other most commonly requested items include cold weather clothing, sand bags, medical supplies, sleeping bags, flashlights and electrical wiring. Grenade launchers and vehicles such as aircraft, watercraft and armored vehicles have also been obtained.”

Now, let’s just take this into consideration, we know that annually we have around $500 million worth of weapons transferred from the military to local police departments, as well as selling weapons around the world as part of trade deals, what weapons do the military now use? You should just ask the top 10 companies that are profiting the most off of the war! Just those 10 companies alone made over $208 billion out of the $410 billion made by the top 100 companies. If you don’t believe in the military industrial complex and it’s goal of making money at the expensive of lives, you don’t know enough about it.

The militarization of our police force and the era of mass incarceration has decimated the communities of people of color across the country, as well as the Clinton’s welfare reform in the 1990s. The Clinton’s allowance of the expansion of the military industrial complex and the disregard for poor communities has lead to the unrest in places like Ferguson and Baltimore. The police wouldn’t have tank-like trucks or grenades if it weren’t for Bush and Clinton.

It’s not a coincidence that companies on Wall St are made of up of the same oil companies, weapons companies, and private prison companies that contribute to the Clintons. It’s not a coincidence that POC’s votes are being taken away systematically and being killed on the street as a result of Clinton’s policies. It’s not a coincidence that the same countries that donated to the Clinton Foundation got their weapons deals approved. This is what the buying of politicians is, this is what corruption looks like. If you don’t care that your candidate is corrupt, you don’t care about yourself, and you don’t care about this country.

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How the Clintons Militarized the Police and Expanded Military Industrial Complex

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