An officer with the Chelan County Sheriff's Department in central Washington is offering me a tank. Three of them, actually.
"We really want to get rid of these," Undersheriff John Wisemore says. "We've been trying to get the military to take them back since 2004."
The tanks came from a vast Defense Department program that has furnished American police arsenals, at no charge, with $4.3 billion worth of combat equipment leftover from two foreign wars. The tanks are amphibious, capable of firing 107-mm mortars—and not remotely useful to Wisemore's rural police department. But the county can't seem to unload them. Back in June, Wisemore got an email from a Defense Department liaison promising to explain how Chelan County can get rid of the tanks. Then, nothing. Until further notice, Wisemore says, "they're just going to sit there."
In the past eight years, the Pentagon program has loaned local law enforcement some 200,000 ammunition magazines, 94,000 machine guns, and thousands of armored vehicles, rifles, aircraft, land mine detectors, silencers, and grenade launchers—all at the request of the local agencies themselves. But images of the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, of police in military gear cracking down on peaceful protesters, have turned many communities against a program critics say has eroded the line between police officers and soldiers. Recently, in response to the local outcry over aggressive policing tactics, San Jose, California's police department announced plans to return its mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle (MRAP), and the Los Angeles school system police department has agreed to return its three grenade launchers.
Law enforcement agencies across the country have quietly returned more than 6,000 unwanted or unusable items to the Pentagon. Full story...
Related posts:
"We really want to get rid of these," Undersheriff John Wisemore says. "We've been trying to get the military to take them back since 2004."
The tanks came from a vast Defense Department program that has furnished American police arsenals, at no charge, with $4.3 billion worth of combat equipment leftover from two foreign wars. The tanks are amphibious, capable of firing 107-mm mortars—and not remotely useful to Wisemore's rural police department. But the county can't seem to unload them. Back in June, Wisemore got an email from a Defense Department liaison promising to explain how Chelan County can get rid of the tanks. Then, nothing. Until further notice, Wisemore says, "they're just going to sit there."
In the past eight years, the Pentagon program has loaned local law enforcement some 200,000 ammunition magazines, 94,000 machine guns, and thousands of armored vehicles, rifles, aircraft, land mine detectors, silencers, and grenade launchers—all at the request of the local agencies themselves. But images of the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, of police in military gear cracking down on peaceful protesters, have turned many communities against a program critics say has eroded the line between police officers and soldiers. Recently, in response to the local outcry over aggressive policing tactics, San Jose, California's police department announced plans to return its mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle (MRAP), and the Los Angeles school system police department has agreed to return its three grenade launchers.
Law enforcement agencies across the country have quietly returned more than 6,000 unwanted or unusable items to the Pentagon. Full story...
Related posts:
- John Oliver: Ferguson, MO and police militarization...
- Ferguson aftermath: California city tells cops to get rid of armored vehicle...
- 4 shocking examples of police militarization in America’s small towns...
- Towns say 'no tanks' to militarized police...
- Small-time police departments in the US are getting billions in big military hardware...
- US police have killed over 5000 civilians since 9/11...
- The militarization of America...
- How we got warrior cops...
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