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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: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday August 29 2017, @07:54PM (4 children)
> We had a neo-con candidate who essentially promised she'd start a war with Russia over Syria and a dickweed who might have done the same.
Because you believe campaign promises? Especially the ones who imply going to war with a nuclear-armed dictator?
I'm sure you would have called her a weak girl if she hadn't used tough rhetoric, too...
> Rationality would suggest you hope you get the dickweed because a bad possibility is better than a bad certainty.
Since the certainty wasn't certain, and the dickweed was obviously less competent for the job (he's proving it) than the fakely certain death provider, can you explain to me which part of that reasoning is "rational" ?
> It seems the cold dead skeletal hands of the Clintons still have a stranglehold on the party.
Citation needed. The federal-level democrats currently only exist as powerless people pointing out the sheer insanity of the republicans. Where are the Clintons in any of this?
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:18PM (2 children)
When HRC promises war -- you're fucking right I believe it. Let us recall that HRC's only beef w/ GWB about the Iraq war, was that he was cutting taxes at the same time which would reduce the funds available for national security "at home and abroad" -- meaning she wanted MORE money for war and domestic surveillance. So yeah, I totally believed she was a warpig.
HRC in 2003 repeating every lie to push for war in Iraq -- her own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtK9AzcU42g [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @09:04PM (1 child)
But when DJT promises war, you jump for joy? Did HRC want war with the wrong people? What's wrong with you?
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday August 30 2017, @03:34AM
Don't be a retard. Trump complained about useless foreign wars leading one to think he's either lying or not lying. In other words, he was marginally better than HRC. As I mentioned previously, I didn't vote for either POS, but when comparing craps, HRC was the bigger stinkier one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 30 2017, @07:29AM
While we can agree that politicians always lie, you fail to see that politicians lie to make themselves look BETTER. No politician lies about being worse than they really are.
When a politician promises ONE war, expect TWO.