Two Years of Data On What Military Equipment the Pentagon Gave To Local Police 264
v3rgEz writes: Wondering how the St. Louis County Police ended up armed with surplus military gear, and what equipment other departments have? A FOIA request at MuckRock has turned up every item given to local law enforcement under the Pentagon's 1022 program, the mechanism by which local law enforcement can apply for surplus or used military gear.
Re:No (Score:5, Interesting)
Military surplus makes such tyranny especially cheap, cheaper than it would otherwise be. Also something about the law of demand.
Update on the mule (Score:5, Interesting)
Okay, had a brain fart - I look up the rifle by NSN, and forget to check the mule, merely guessing.
Well, it's a Kawasaki mule model KAF400A [govliquidation.com] per the NSN*
Going by the state that I remember us operating them in, I'd guess that the thing was probably a non-functioning worn out POS by the time the military lets go of it.
*National Stock Number.
Re:No (Score:5, Interesting)
When you give the police weapons of war then they will find someone to go to war with. Unfortunately, that is the general populace.
Re:No (Score:5, Interesting)
Private citizens are under far more accountability and surveillance than law enforcement.
Forget what they got, look what they *DO* (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.cato.org/publicatio... [cato.org]
Radley Balko has been writing about the militarization of our police for years.
This map of botched police raids is especially scary:
http://www.cato.org/raidmap [cato.org]
Frankly, I'd rather have my law abiding neighbors armed than the cops.