Beware of Exploding Gifts from Uncle Sam

[Judi Lynn]

Published on Friday, August 22, 2014
by Common Dreams

Beware of Exploding Gifts from Uncle Sam

by Medea Benjamin


[font size=1]
Our police departments should not become dumping grounds for weapons makers looking for new clients to replace sales for waning wars abroad, writes Benjamin. (Photo: vai Bullfax.com)[/font]

In a brilliant August 17 segment of Last Week Tonight, HBO host John Oliver ripped into small towns that have equipped their police with war-like military equipment. One town was Keene, New Hampshire, where their military-grade armored personnel truck was acquired to protect critical targets –– like the annual Pumpkin Festival. Another was Doraville, Georgia. Oliver showed a wild video clip from the Doraville Police Department’s website, with a Ninja-dressed SWAT team going for a joyride in a souped-up armored personnel carrier, all set to a heavy metal song called “Die MotherF***er Die.”

In a visit to Doraville last week, I asked Officer Gene Callaway why his sleepy town of 8,000, which hasn’t had a murder since 2009, needed an armored personnel carrier (APC). “The vehicle provides Doraville with a scalable response and ensures the safety of police officers,” he answered. Scalable response? Safety of police officers? Doraville has never been a crime-ridden town. “We at Doraville are proud to be ranked 39th in safest cities in Georgia,” Callaway himself bragged. It seems the most useful task the APC performed was pulling 18-wheelers back onto the salted lanes of Route 285 during snowstorms. Oh, and let’s not forget that “the kids love playing on it” when it rolls up to the county fair, Callaway told me.

Doraville’s armored vehicle is a gift from Uncle Sam, as part of the billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment now flowing from the federal government to state and local police departments. Not only is it an incredible waste of taxpayer money, but it gets people--including children--accustomed to seeing military vehicles on their streets. Worst of all, it is causing police to act like soldiers, especially since one of the stipulations of getting this equipment is that it must be used within one year of receipt.

The Doraville Police, embarrassed by the negative publicity from their video, took it down (they insist that the theme music was unauthorized). Now on their website you can see much more benevolent images, such as three smiling police officers, one dressed as Santa Claus, with two young girls who are the recipients of the “Santa Pop Program” that pairs police with “less-fortunate children.”

But let’s face it. Military toys, constantly dangled before the police at law enforcement exhibits and fairs, are hard to resist. And with the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security giving out this stuff for free, why not get some hand-me-downs? Doraville and Keene are just two of thousands of cities and towns throughout the nation that have successfully applied for surplus equipment from a federal government agency.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/08/22/beware-exploding-gifts-uncle-sam

[Aristus]

1. Ah, the lineal descendants of the My Lai butchers.

Rambo-ed up and looking for a massacre...

[malthaussen]

2. Remember the character Howard Hunter from Hill Street Blues?

I bet Steven Bochco is bemused that he seems to have become a role model.

-- Mal

[Aristus]

3. I remember.

I also remember my father shaking his head in disgust every time Howard proposed some massive firepower scheme to end whatever law enforcement problem was going on.

[malthaussen]

4. The resolution on the DVDs is pretty sucky...

... but I would swear in one of the early episodes, Howard is drinking out of a coffee mug labelled "Calley." Which if true was an excellent, albeit sinister, joke.

-- Mal