The Pentagon Is Giving Grenade Launchers to Campus Police
The Pentagon Is Giving Grenade Launchers to Campus Police
By Hannah K. Gold Sep 5 2014
In 1968, students at Columbia University staged a mass uprising other college campuses in protesting not just the war in Vietnam, but their schools collaboration with the Institute for Defense Analysis, a Defense Department affiliate that researches weapons technologies. Today, weapons produced by that institute are used by the US military throughout the worldand by campus police forces across the country. The war has come home.
The Pentagons 1033 program, which allows the Defense Department to unload its excess military equipment onto local police forces, has quietly overflowed onto college campuses. According to documents obtained by the website Muckrock, more than 100 campus police forces have received military materials from the Pentagon. Schools that participate in the program range from liberal arts to community colleges to the entire University of Texas system. Emory, Rice, Purdue, and the University of California, Berkeley, are all on the list.
In 1990, Congress enacted the National Defense Authorization Act, including the magnanimous section 1208, which since 1996 has been known as program 1033. Over the last 17 years, this trickle-down gift economy has distributed more than $4.3 billion worth of equipment, according to program administrators. As Ferguson police rolled up to peaceful protesters in military-grade tanks, firing tear gas and rubber bullets, President Obama ordered a review of the program, which reached new highs in regifting under his tenure.
Its clear why a review of the program is in order, because it isnt clear at all what sort of equipment these colleges are receiving. David Perry, the president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, told Politico that 1033 mostly funnels small items to college police forces for daily use. These could be anything from office supplies or uniforms or car parts, but its probably not all that tame. Campus Safety magazine recommends that universities take part in the 1033 program to cover a range of needs from storage units to grenade launchers. That is, after all, what the program was designed to achieve.
More:
http://www.vice.com/read/the-pentagon-is-giving-grenade-launchers-to-campus-police-904
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)Last edited Sat Sep 6, 2014, 08:41 PM - Edit history (1)
This shit has got to be called out, and stopped ...
... but it appears that the train may have already left the proverbial station.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Don't answer that.
They are either orcs, or morons. The two are not exclusive, either.
Worse yet, what kind of Universities ACCEPT such largess?
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)and every day I look and feel like ...
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)we are now. This all has the underpinnings of a very dangerous environment down the road with more and more a glaring lack of a democracy. In many cases, "we the people" are now enemies of the state ... at least of the cops. Same here!
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Chan790
(20,176 posts)in most cases, either private security or special police as opposed to actual LEOs, need a grenade launcher?
I may not agree with it but I can see the arguments that could be made for giving U of Md. Police, an actual police force, an extension of the MD State Police, serious policing gear. They're auxiliary police to be called into service in the case of a riot or terrorist attack anywhere in the metro DC area. They were activated to that end on 9/11 and during the Beltway Sniper crisis.
AU, GWU, SEU, CUA, GU...the other 5 major universities in or abutting DC...all have DC Special Police. Literally, security guards that had to pass a test administered by DC MPD that merely allows them to be armed security guards. They have no arrest or investigative authorities anywhere and no authority whatsoever outside of their geographical area. (Which is, basically, campus...in the case of CU and Georgetown who have off-campus athletic facilities non-adjacent to campus, it also extends to the intermediate non-campus zone.)