Bay Area agencies reflect amid debate over military equipment use
The images from Ferguson, Mo., after the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager were startling to many: Peaceful protesters, including families, community leaders and pastors, confronted by police wearing camouflage, sitting atop hulking armored vehicles, their assault weapons trained on the crowd.
The backlash touched off a national fire storm about whether today's police departments have sunk too deeply into the paramilitary functions they've increasingly taken on since the advent of the modern SWAT team in the 1960s.
But the discussion was a familiar one in the Bay Area well before Ferguson, especially after the Occupy Oakland protests in 2011, and more recently at smaller protests like one last year in Richmond.
The Ferguson case prompted a new round of introspection, with some Bay Area agencies taking to heart the renewed criticism over the use of military equipment they have acquired from federal grant and surplus programs, items valued at an estimated $460 million.
full: http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county-times/ci_26614299/bay-area-agencies-reflect-amid-debate-over-military
= new reply since forum marked as read
