Police with lots of military gear kill civilians more often than less-militarized officers https://theconversation.com/police-with-lots-of-military-gear-kill-civilians-more-often-than-less-militarized-officers-141421
Here's the SMMRY: https://smmry.com/https://theconversation.com/police-with-lots-of-military-gear-kill-civilians-more-often-than-less-militarized-officers-141421#&SM_LENGTH=10 > Police departments that get more equipment from the military kill more > civilians than departments that get less military gear. > > The military was shrinking, while police were feeling overwhelmed fighting > the drug war. > > Militarization of police doesn't reduce crime or improve officer safety - but > it does make civilians less trusting of the police, with good reason. > > In our study, my coauthors and I found that the police agencies who received > the most military gear had, in the year after getting the equipment, a rate > of civilian killings more than double that of police departments that had > received the least amount of military equipment through the 1033 Program. > > Federal records of how much military gear has actually been given to local > police are inconsistent, poorly maintained and sometimes missing altogether. > > While the 1033 Program is the most significant source of military gear for > police in general, it is not the only source of military equipment for > police: There are other similar federal and state grant programs, and many > big-city police departments have massive equipment budgets of their own with > which they can purchase military-grade hardware. > > To justify the costs, and help defray them, police often use the gear to > serve search warrants targeting drug crimes. > > As a result, supposedly free weapons and vehicles can lead some police to use > aggressive deployment strategies that make civilian casualties more likely. > > These increasingly aggressive deployment strategies of militarized police > disproportionately harm communities of color, for instance in Maryland, where > SWAT raids consistently target majority-Black neighborhoods. > > While police often claim that militarized gear is a necessity in order to > prepare for "Worst-case scenarios," there is ample evidence that receiving > agencies use military gear in inappropriate situations. -- ☣ uǝlƃ - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
