War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing

[orphanedhawk]

All across the country, heavily armed SWAT teams are raiding people’s homes in the middle of the night, often just to search for drugs. It should enrage us that people have needlessly died during these raids, that pets have been shot, and that homes have been ravaged.

Our neighborhoods are not warzones, and police officers should not be treating us like wartime enemies. Any yet, every year, billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment flows from the federal government to state and local police departments. Departments use these wartime weapons in everyday policing, especially to fight the wasteful and failed drug war, which has unfairly targeted people of color.

As our new report makes clear, it’s time for American police to remember that they are supposed to protect and serve our communities, not wage war on the people who live in them.

more @
https://www.aclu.org/war-comes-home-excessive-militarization-american-policing

[orphanedhawk]

Police departments nation wide have been given combat weaponry~ leftovers from the military.
My current home town with less than 6000 people has possession of a tank !
So, they used it to bust a guy growing 24 marijuana plants.
A tank~ used against a guy growing plants~ laughable except for the problem that innocent people may be harmed.

[teko]

I dont see a need for any of this equipment in a local town. These things were made for war. I hope they re assess that decision.