Ferguson, Missouri has been turned into a war zone. Why? Because they can.
The city of Ferguson, Missouri, is being forced by the Obama administration to return two military vehicles that it obtained from the Pentagon, amid widespread concern and criticism over the deployment on American streets of equipment intended for war zones.
The US Department of Defense will reclaim a pair of Humvees that were given to the beleaguered St Louis suburb under a controversial program to distribute surplus weapons, vehicles and other gear, according to several government officials involved in the process.
What the hell?
I want to tell you the truth. My husband is a small town country lawyer. He is mortified that small town police departments have become military powers. Their “raid teams” smash down doors and do a full scale raid when the suspect isn’t even there.
The front page of my local newspaper today boasts that the local police made a major bust of 70 pounds of marijuana, a substance that is legal one state over. What the hell? It will cost us a small fortune to arrest this guy, detain him, get him a court appointed lawyer, try his case, and then put his butt in prison where we will feed, house, and give him healthcare for possession of something that is legal one state over.
But let me get back to the militarization of local police departments. It scares the crapola out of me. The police are here to protect and serve, not walk around in riot gear in a small town.
Take the damn military surplus back. Beat it into plowshares.
We do need riot police. But at the very least it should regional, ready, and small. If you have all this fancy equipment it’s real easy to turn a traffic stop into a riot. And I also think that having all this junk is making our cops paranoid and far more likely to escalate a situation.
The military is trained to kill people. The police should be trained to save them.
Okay, here’s your soapbox back.
