President Trump will sign an executive order to allow local police departments to receive or purchase military surplus equipment:
Police departments will now have access to military surplus equipment typically used in warfare, including grenade launchers, armored vehicles and bayonets, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Monday, describing it as "lifesaving gear."
The move rescinds limits on the Pentagon handouts that were put in place by President Barack Obama in 2015 amid a national debate over policing touched off by a spate of high-profile deaths of black men at the hands of the police, including the shooting death in 2014 of 18-year-old Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo., by a white officer. Some local residents viewed police use of military equipment during the ensuing protests as an unnecessary show of force and intimidation.
In a speech to the Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville, Mr. Sessions said Mr. Obama had made it harder for the police to protect themselves and their neighborhoods. "Those restrictions went too far," Mr. Sessions said. "We will not put superficial concerns above public safety."
Mr. Sessions said that President Trump would sign an executive order on Monday fully restoring the military program, called 1033, and that the president was doing "all he can to restore law and order and support our police across the country." [...] 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.
Organized gangs get to play soldier.
Also at The Hill and USA Today.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday August 29 2017, @07:26PM (5 children)
This face has been asking for some spite for quite a while. Until you're willing to show the establishment you're ready to burn the whole place to the ground if they keep fucking around, they're not going to give you a single inch.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday August 29 2017, @10:32PM (2 children)
The only lesson learned by the establishment is that people are easily manipulated by social media and fake news. Expect worse in 2020.
(Score: 2, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 30 2017, @02:43AM (1 child)
Expect Trump to win again in 2020 then.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday August 30 2017, @11:42AM
Like I said....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 30 2017, @02:57AM (1 child)
I saw the vote for Trump as an expression of willingness to do just such burning - anything but the established families, no matter how many pussies grabbed.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 30 2017, @10:27AM
Congrats. You're smarter than the vast majority of Democrats then.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.