There is a long legacy of militarized policing in the U.S. includes cointel-pro, which investigated black liberation movement leaders from the time of Marcus Garvey to Martin Luther King and members of the Black Panther. The kind of tactics used were those that were understood to be reserved for non-U.S. citizens. Some sources suggest that drugs like crack were introduced into Black communities to destabilize its social movements. During the 80’s & 90’s, the war on drugs criminalized communities impacted the crack epidemic.
According a Vox Report … “the federal government helped militarize local and state police departments in an attempt to better equip them in the fight against drugs. The Pentagon’s 1033 program, which gives surplus military-grade equipment to police, was created in the 1990s as part of President George HW Bush’s escalation of the war on drugs. The deployment of SWAT teams, as reported by the ACLU, also increased during the past few decades, and 62 percent of SWAT raids in 2011 and 2012 were for drug searches.”
Following President Barack Obama’s moratorium on the transfer of surplus military-grade equipment and weaponry, the current U.S. president shifted policy to make the surplus of weapons, vehicles and other equipment more readily available to civilian law enforcement, thereby militarizing our law enforcement policies and practices. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reportedly stated to officers at a police convention, “We have your back and you have our thanks.”
The militarization of the police examines the behavior and tactics of domestic law enforcement, including the equipment they use , and is presently indistinguishable from soldiers fighting on distant battlefields. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called militarism one of “the triplets of evil.” Today’s domestic militarism is defined as the overuse of public resources, energy and its focus toward war. For instance, public funding that would support employment, housing, infrastructure and education are instead utilized in war-making capacity. Researchers connect decreasing social safety and public support to increasing military and domestic law enforcement funding. In the absence of a draft, people in marginalized communities are often economically pressed into military and police service. Through grants, local law enforcement around the country have received much of the surplus military weapons and equipment.
Some argue that police training does not equip local officers with the specialized training to use these weapons. Others suggest that these high grade weapons are used without concern for the extent of damage they can cause. The technology is often an excuse for the violent and aggressive behavior they reinforce. One Truth Teller and her son share their story of militaristic behavior that saw her as an enemy combatant.
The U.S. military budget is largest in the world not just because of the military, but the use of private security firms and contracts for the purchase of weapons and military vehicles. There is a circular relationship between private security companies like Black Water, weapons, and equipment manufacturers who receive tax rebates, while lobbying politicians to sell their goods abroad.
During the height of the war in Iraq – the organization Code Pink and the leadership of 30 cities around the country demanded that the U.S. government convert its war spending into infrastructure development. The Friends Legislative Service Committee and the War Resisters League report that the over abundance of weapons and military gear often ends up in the hands of local police departments for storage. During the protests in NYC, Baltimore and Ferguson, without hesitation, law enforcement used military grade weapons on communities of color as if fighting trained soldiers on foreign soil. The militarized approach of policing in the wake of Ferguson revealed to many the level of technological and sophisticated warfare that could be unleashed arbitrarily upon any group standing up for their rights. Obama’s executive order to stop such transfers was limited because it did not address the millions in grant money that are available to law enforcement across the country. Broadly speaking, militarization continues to one of the major avenues for U.S. economic development, where weapons and equipment manufacturers receive government contract despite the impact the militaristic behavior on communities of color.