(Oops) Police Abusing Military Gear Could Be Forced to Pay Back Millions in Grants

[Jackpine Radical]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/345-justice/25798-police-abusing-military-gear-could-be-forced-to-pay-back-millions-in-grants

Police Abusing Military Gear Could Be Forced to Pay Back Millions in Grants
By Dan Roberts, Guardian UK
10 September 14



US police forces that use military equipment earmarked for counter-terrorism to handle public order disturbances instead could be forced to repay millions of dollars in grants, under a review revealed during the first congressional hearings into this summer’s riots in Ferguson, Missouri.

The Department of Justice and the White House were already investigating whether to limit federal programs that have showered local law enforcement agencies with armoured vehicles and military-style equipment in recent years.

But the Department of Homeland Security, one of three US agencies primarily responsible for providing the equipment, said it was now considering whether to demand that its grants be repaid if police are found to have broken a little-known rule prohibiting its use in riot suppression.

“We have a range of remedies should [the DOJ] find non-compliance, including recoupment of funds,” Brian Kamoie of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Kentucky senator Rand Paul during a hearing of the Senate homeland security committee.

[hlthe2b]

2. Did you change your entire OP? My response (since self-deleted) was obviously geared toward another

issue...

[Jackpine Radical]

21. I didn't change anything.

Note absence of edits on OP (but not on this response, which was edited to add this text).

[hlthe2b]

22. I must have had two DU windows open.. 'Sorry!

[Taitertots]

3. Make the police (not the populace) pay for it

ACAB. Cops don't care because WE pay for it.

[eomer]

4. Right, so then we will have paid *twice over* to equip our police into a military force...

and the police will still have been turned into a military force?

What a deal (for the MIC 1%ers)!

[Taitertots]

6. No, the police would pay out of pocket. Not using tax dollars

[eomer]

7. Yes, sorry, faulty wording on my part.

What I was trying say was that otherwise (if the police themselves don't pay for it), then we will have paid for it twice over - once through our federal taxes and then again through our local taxes. But in your solution then we will have paid for it just the once that we already have (which is obviously better).

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Where do you think the dollars that go INTO the police pockets comes from?

Our Federal tax dollars get turned into war machines.
Our community ( city, county, state) tax dollars ( plus a lot of Federal tax dollars as a match) get turned into ANYTHING
the police/sheriff/Highway Patrol wants to buy
OR
has to pay out in lawsuits.

Our tax dollars pay the high premiums for the insurance that city/county/state offices has to buy, including liability insurance.

WE are buying the tools THEY use to oppress us.

[Taitertots]

13. Not the PD's money, right out of the police officer's bank account

When officers willfully violate the law, they should be personally responsible for it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. And the police money in their bank accounts.....where did that come from?

Re-edit, to try again.

The money that police get comes from our taxes.
The police deposit their money, from our taxes, into a bank.
They then spend it, just like anyone else with a job does.
Just because it is in their bank account does not make the $$$ suddenly NOT coming from taxes we pay.

[Taitertots]

16. Who cares where it comes from. Personal spending isn't government spending

If YOU get a fine is it the same thing as fining your employer? The money comes out of your pocket, not your employers.

[whistler162]

18. As Spock would say

#Spock-Highly%20Illogical%20250x250

[Taitertots]

20. Making people who break the law pays fine is not illogical

Why should we hold police to a lower standard than everyone else?

I break the law, i pay the fine. Cops break the law, we pay the fine.

[postulater]

5. If DHS wants the equipment available for fighting terrorism

it would seem more sensible to allocate it to the National Guard rather than the local police.

The National Guard is already trained on stuff like that and would have better supervision.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Constitution says the Gov. cannot use military on US citizens, essentially.

National Guard is military.

Nothing says you cannot turn civilian police into a military looking/acting force, so that is what they are doing.

Worse yet, some states are using PRIVATE contractors to act as police.

[postulater]

17. Ouch! I hadn't thought of that. I would like to think that MY government is not that asshole-ish,

but wrong again.

This crap never ends.

Somedays it seems like Cheney never left office.

[AllyCat]

8. I am not understanding why HSA would write that in there.

Didn't think they had that kind of ethics.

[BrotherIvan]

9. It's CYA

And there's some winking and nudging in there too.

[NJCher]

11. sure it is

And that's de facto proof right there that they knew what could happen.

And can you believe this? College and university campus security is getting this type of equipment if they have an affiliation with the local police department in which the campus is located.

As a university teacher, I was tailed by an unmarked police car in a highly aggressive fashion. This car had tinted windows and six (count 'em!) six antennas on top of the car!

Later, at a teacher's meeting, I found out the campus was getting equipment through the police department (it had come through the Defense Department).

They are probably salivating for another Kent State. Then they can mow the students and faculty down with greater efficiency than what they were able to do in 1970. Bayonets! Assault rifles! Armored vehicles!! Just imagine the possibilities!


Cher

[AllyCat]

23. Guess that is what I was thinking too Cher.

Still, why would the NSA care if cops opened fire on protesters? Keeps us all in line.

[Garion_55]

10. the hearing

http://www.c-span.org/video/?321337-1/hearing-militarization-police-forces

[Tsiyu]

19. Uh Oh

Methinks a lotta no-neck Bubba deputies and porn-stashed captains might be sweatin' under the collar when they realize this.