Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Obama Administration Lowers the Boom on Military Gear for Police

Effective immediately, the White House has banned the transfer of several classes of weapons and gear to police agencies. (Photo: AP/Jeff Roberson)

Guns dot com

Following a year of high-profile riots and demonstrations, the White House on Monday moved forward with implementing a ban on transferring some weapons and military equipment to law enforcement.

The Task Force on 21st Century Policing, a now permanent separate federal inter-agency working group set up by executive order of President Barack Obama in January, has released its final report, which the president has ordered placed into effect through the Departments of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security.

Among the list of items now prohibited from being transferred either from surplus military stocks via the DOD’s 1033 Program or bought through DHS grants are tracked armored vehicles, weaponized aircraft, vessels or vehicles of any kind; firearms or ammunition of .50 caliber or higher, grenade launchers, bayonets and camouflage uniforms.

“The Working Group concluded that a prohibition on acquisition of such equipment by LEAs [law enforcement agencies] from Federal programs is appropriate because the substantial risk of misusing or overusing these items, which are seen as militaristic in nature, could significantly undermine community trust and may encourage tactics and behaviors that are inconsistent with the premise of civilian law enforcement,” reads the report. “These concerns outweigh the Federal Government’s interest in providing this equipment to address law enforcement needs (that could not otherwise be fulfilled).

”In addition to prohibiting the future transfer of the now-restricted weapons and equipment, the administration is also seeking to recover those that are already in the hands of police agencies nationwide.

12 comments:

  1. "Among the list of items now prohibited from being transferred either from surplus military stocks via the DOD’s 1033 Program or bought through DHS grants are tracked armored vehicles, weaponized aircraft, vessels or vehicles of any kind; firearms or ammunition of .50 caliber or higher, grenade launchers, bayonets and camouflage uniforms."

    "Besides the banned items, further controls are placed on the transfer of manned and unmanned aircraft, wheeled armored and tactical vehicles such as MRAPs and humvees, pyrotechnics, breaching apparatus and riot gear."

    I haven't seen too many tracked police vehicles in the news lately so it would be interesting to see if anyone has any out there. I actually think that using MRAPs and uparmored Humvees is a good cost saving measure for police departments. I has become a standard photo op after a riot takes place to see photos of trashed and burned out police cars where miscreants take out their frustrations out on these symbols of the government. Let them throw rocks and jump on an MRAP all day long and all that's need is a can of spray paint to fix it.

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    1. If the MRAPS and Hummers are no longer being used by the military they should be sold at auction to the highest bidder which of course should include civilians and police and the money returned to the American people. If they want them let them pay market value for them no more Handouts and deeeeeeeeeeep discounts on the dime of the American people let them ask the community's they work for if they want to spend the money on such things

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    2. Having worn both uniforms, I firmly believe that there are certain pieces of military equipment that can and should be available to law enforcement. Patrol rifles and body armor being among them. The only real difference between an interceptor military vest and the OTV vest that many agencies are starting to go to is the color of the carrier. Other items such as night vision and optics can be valuable as well but in general more limited circumstances. Vehciles are a little different situation but should be available in certain situations.

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    3. George Jefferson comes up with the most plausible scenario yet: "and the money returned to the American people."

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  2. Bayonets are no longer allowed to be sold to the police? When is the last time a police department bought bayonets from the military? That seemed odd to me.

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    1. If memory serves me correctly, it was a report from NPR a few months back when this was all breaking and being investigated. This report provided our libertarian hero, Rand Paul with the information he needed to make a grand gesture before congress during one of the inquests. He asked the police chief of whatever city it was, point-blank, "Just when does your department need to have bayonets?" The baffled policeman simply hemmed and hawed. Rand answered the question for him. "Never!" It's all true. Only in the U.S.A. When was the last time the infantry used them, I can't help but wonder?

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    2. I thought that was pretty weird too, Jim.

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  3. Replies
    1. Good for you, Kurt, making nitpicking, RELEVANT distinctions about the various defintions of the word "ban." It is a bit surprising since you've often disparaged my doing that same thing.

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  4. You really shared something about yourself. MikeB is lucky to have such a distinguished blogger as yourself as a worthy opponent.

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    1. I'm not entirely certain that he is quite as grateful for his good fortune in that regard as one might expect.

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  5. Actually any police dept. CAN have any of those items or more if they wish. They just cant have them thru the government donations and funding that was set up under the Obama administration in the first place anymore. Obama give it to them, now Obama stops it.

    Again, if the police forces wish to use local tax funds to purchase any of these items and more, they are free to do so. Obama has no authority to deny them of these items.

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