Image by Mez Love via Flickr
Direct from the military to every police department in the U.S., thanks to an obscure little program:
The 1033 Program (formerly the 1208 Program) permits the Secretary of Defense to transfer, without charge, excess U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) personal property (supplies and equipment) to state and local law enforcement agencies (LEAs).
The 1033 Program has allowed law enforcement agencies to acquire vehicles (land, air and sea), weapons, computer equipment, body armor, fingerprint equipment, night vision equipment, radios and televisions, first aid equipment, tents and sleeping bags, photographic equipment and more.
Grenade launchers in Mayberry? It's more likely than you may think: this year alone, DoD handed out nearly half a billion dollars' worth of gear - and Christmas has yet to arrive. As troop withdrawals in Iraq and elsewhere spin up, expect more free stuff to be made available to local law enforcement agencies. Indeed, orders for next year are up some 400% already. Imagine what Barney Fife could do with a tank.
While Conservatives tend to be supportive of law enforcement, the increasing militarization of the local constabulary might justifiably constitute grounds for re-evaluation. Among the questions one may consider: what justification exists for the deployment of advanced weaponry on American soil from coast to coast? Police agencies are by no means exempt from the fundamental dictum of all governmental bureaucracies: Growth Is Good.
Nor are we exempt from our fundamental responsibilities to contain and to direct such growth, however much a distraction from our daily lives these responsibilities may prove to be. During the course of such ruminations, basic human nature cannot be ignored. Consider that when you acquire a new toy, your immediate reaction is to play with it; to put it to use, to see what it can do.
It seems reasonable and prudent to consider as well whether the reaction of our police agencies might take similar form.
