Police to again get military weapons
SADIE GURMAN
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump will revive a program that provides police departments with surplus military equipment such as high-calibre weapons and grenade launchers, despite past concerns that armoured vehicles and other gear were inflaming confrontations with protesters.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the program to roaring applause Monday at a national convention of the Fraternal Order of Police, one of the groups that had long urged Trump to restore the military program.
The plan will “ensure that you can get the lifesaving gear that you need to do your job and send a strong message that we will not allow criminal activity, violence, and lawlessness to become a new normal,” Sessions told the cheering crowd.
Trumpplanstosignanorderundoing limitations on police agencies’ access to camouflage uniforms, bullet-proof vests, riot shields, firearms, ammunition and other items.
Groups across the political spectrum have expressed concern about the militarization of police, arguing that the equipment encourages and escalates confrontations with officers. But many law enforcement agencies and policing organizations see it as necessary to ensure officers aren’t put in danger when responding to active shooter calls and terrorist attacks. An armoured vehicle played a key role in the police response to the December 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif.
Congress authorized the Pentagon program in 1990, allowing police to receive surplus equipment to help fight drugs, which then gave way to the fight against terrorism.
Then-president Barack Obama issued an executive order in 2015 that severely limited the program, partly triggered by public outrage over the use of military gear during protests in Ferguson, Mo., following the shooting death of 18-yearold Michael Brown.
Police responded in riot gear and deployedteargas,dogsandarmoured vehicles. At times they also pointed assault rifles at protesters.
Obama’s order prohibited the federal government from providing grenade launchers, bayonets, tracked armoured vehicles, weaponized aircraft and vehicles, and firearms and ammunition of .50-calibre or greater to police.
As of December, the agency overseeing the program had recalled at least 100 grenade launchers, more than 1,600 bayonets and 126 tracked vehicles.