For a long time now, police reform advocates have been talking about the militarization of the police. Over the last three decades, police have increasingly utilized excessive force and SWAT-like tactics for even the most routine of interactions with the public. This, combined with the federal government’s supply of surplus military weaponry to local police departments, has made for a dangerous problem that will not improve anytime soon under the Trump administration. In fact, on Monday, Trump removed an Obama-era policy that restricted the type of military weaponry that could be given to police departments by the federal government.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the change, first reported by USA Today, in a speech to the Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville on Monday.
The executive order "will ensure that you can get the lifesaving gear that you need to do your job and send a strong message that we will not allow criminal activity, violence, and lawlessness to become the new normal," he said.
The Obama limitations hurt law enforcement, Sessions added.
The limitations were put in place in 2015, after the deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray led to uprisings in Ferguson and Baltimore, in which the police could be seen on TV with tanks and riot gear terrorizing protestors—many of whom were peaceful. It’s not clear why the police would need this kind of gear to do their jobs, except to intimidate the very people they are supposed to protect. There is no reason for police to behave as if they are going to war in these communities. Yet, here they are, approaching civilians as if they are enemy combatants. And the government giving police departments grenade launchers doesn’t help nor does it do anything to garner trust on either side.
“We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like they’re an occupying force,” Mr. Obama said in announcing that he was placing curbs on the program.
The program was started in the 1990s as a way for the military to transfer surplus equipment to federal, state and local police agencies fighting the drug war. More than $5 billion in surplus gear has been funneled to law enforcement agencies.
Mr. Obama prohibited transfers of weaponized vehicles, certain large-caliber ammunition and other equipment. He also added restrictions on transferring some weapons and devices, explosives, battering rams, riot helmets and shields.
This is not about lawlessness nor is this necessary for protecting police officers—let’s be honest about that. Jeff Sessions has reinvented the War on Drugs and calls for “law and order” to criminalize more black and brown bodies. He’s using every available tool in his arsenal to do it. Communities of color, mainly in urban areas, have been terrorized by militarized policing for years. This just makes that work much easier and much more effective. After all, they aren’t doing this in places where white folk live that have been ravaged by the opioid epidemic and have high rates of drug use and crime. This is racism in action and in policy. Since we can’t trust the Trump Justice Department to protect our rights or to build meaningful, transformative dialogue between communities and the criminal justice system, it’s clear we must do it ourselves.