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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday August 29 2017, @06:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-business-of-war dept.

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.

1033 Program.

Also at The Hill and USA Today.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:38PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:38PM (#561107)

    TTP is dead

    As is the US's participation in Paris Agreement, which combined with all the other ways Trump keeps pissing off all of the US allies really hurt US's standing in the world for absolutely no gain at all.

    and we took a step back on Syria instead of diving in

    Replaced by teetering on the brink of a nuclear war with North Korea and doubling (tripling?) down on Afghanistan, while pissing off the NATO allies.

    I'd call it a wash at best :/

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:56PM (#561116)

    N. Kor saber rattling is a joke and a distraction.
    Any actual effective hostility will be dealt with is short order.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:57PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:57PM (#561117)

    Nobody but a very small number of extreme leftists and an even smaller number of bureaucrats take any of those environmental agreements/protocols/accords/whatever seriously. That's why they all fail. They have no widespread support, and actually have widespread opposition.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 30 2017, @07:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 30 2017, @07:00AM (#561365)

    We aren't playing a popularity contest here. The US isn't trying to be a prom queen.

    Our true standing in the world is more about the degree to which we dominate. When you pay all the bills (Paris, UN, NATO) and generally let others walk all over you, you aren't getting any respect. That would be low standing. In terms of standing, it is better to be a bully.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 30 2017, @07:25AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 30 2017, @07:25AM (#561378)

    Replaced by teetering on the brink of a nuclear war with North Korea

    You don't seriously think that anyone in the US is afraid of Kims tiny country and his four missiles?

    It's China they worry about. China is standing in the middle, not quite willing to pick a side. If the US attacks North Korea, they just might get pissed off about US soldiers right outside their borders.

    I wouldn't be at all surprised if the US administration hopes that Kim will be crazy enough to attack the US, because that will force China to deal with the problem. In which case we will probably see the Chinese invading from the north and the US invading from the south, splitting North Korea between them like Germany after WW2.