Police have received $120 million worth of weapons through a Pentagon grant program since January 2021
Speaking Security Newsletter | Advisory Note for Activists and Candidates, n°161 | 11 July 2022
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The military-industrial complex produces a ton of excess matériel and the Pentagon constantly has to figure out ways to offload it. Storage is an option, but the Pentagon tries to avoid it (storage is an annoying process logistically/bureaucratically, and sometimes they just don’t have the space. Also, it’s harder for military leadership to justify buying new equipment when they’ve got a warehouse full of virtually the same stuff—gently used or totally unused—that works just fine).
A popular option is dumping excess equipment abroad, particularly to developing countries. This can be done through a range of military aid authorities, one of which is the Pentagon’s “excess defense articles” (EDA) program, which transfers surplus (“excess”) US matériel to foreign governments for free or at significantly marked-down prices.
The closest thing to a domestic version of that is probably the 1033 program, a War on Drugs-era authority that allows the Pentagon to transfer surplus military gear to state and local police. (You can read more about this program here, here, and here.)
There are several reasons why the program should be shut down, but the biggest one’s the dose-response relationship between military gear acquired through the program and police violence. The good news is Biden can easily recall this combat gear (and suspend the program entirely) without Congress. The bad news is he still hasn’t issued an executive order that would do so, and Congress hasn’t passed a bill that would, either.
Here’s the latest data on the program, released earlier this month by DOD:
-Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)
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