$35 BILLION IN DHS POLICE MILITARIZATION PARTY PAID FOR BY MIDDLE CLASS AS BILLIONAIRES AND CORPORATIONS PAY NEAR ZERO IN TAXES = HOMELAND SECURITY, THAT MAXIMIZES ARMS SALES, WAS A MASSIVE MISTAKEN MOVE TOWARDS A POLICE STATE!

STATE POLICE = POLICE STATE

Don’t Bring a Tank to Pumpkin Fest by David Weigel, Slate political reporter

Click for Source Slate Article by David Weigel

Tom Coburn released a report “Safety at Any Price: Assessing the Impact of Homeland Security Spending on U.S. Cities” portrayed a child-size drone flying near the Capitol; over ATV-driving Lego men; and, for some reason, over R2D2. = “If in the days after 9/11 lawmakers were able to cast their gaze forward ten years,” wrote Coburn, “I imagine they would be surprised to see how a counter-terrorism initiative aimed at protecting our largest cities has transformed into another parochial grant program.”

Police forces look like occupying armies = $35 billion in Department of Homeland Security grants.

Seattle = Spent $80,000 on a drone
Pittsburgh = Spent $90,000 on a sonic cannon used it to break up protests
SMALL TOWN Police departments buy $250,000 armored BearCats
Fontana, CA considers itself a ‘top 100 terrorist target’ — Coburn’s researchers
Keene, NH fought, unsuccessfully, its police department = BearCat purchase for  Pumpkin Fest
Ferguson, MO = TANKS + ARMORED VEHICLES + SWAT TEAMS + RUBBER BULLETS + REAL BULLETS + TAER GAS = MILITARY POLICE STATE

Rand Paul published op-ed denouncing “Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars.”

“Rand Paul is right.” — Al Sharpton

Decades of WAR ON DRUGS + Tough-On-Crime Policies = MILITARIZE POLICE

Libertarian ideal = State has no more firepower to control civilians than the civilians have to police themselves, or to fight back. = Libertarian answer to crime has never been about empowering the police. = Libertarians saw it as the gun lobby saw it, the government was arming a police state while making it illegal and impossible for citizens to defend themselves from tyranny.

Liberals are up in arms about police militarization. Libertarians are saying: What took you so long? Right-wingers who’d been warning about fat contracts arming thuggish police departments are suddenly finding themselves in step with the left.

“…it seemed clear that they (Police) didn’t like being filmed. It became clear that capturing the truth of the situation might be powerful….As people start to film what they see and pursue tactics that are peaceful ultimately these incidents will continue to happen until the institution of policing, which is a coercive monopoly, is denied legitimacy. Badges don’t grant extra rights. If an action’s unlawful for me or you, it’s unlawful for anyone.”

— Eyre who co-founded CopBlock, which encourages citizens to film the police – Stop police departments from turning into shoot-first armies.

That’s further than many liberals would be willing to go.

NYT’ Matt Apuzzo published a wide-ranging study of what military equipment was making it to the sheriff’s office and how. In Morgan County, Indiana, the police acquired an MRAP because, in one sergeant’s words, “a lot of people who are coming out of the military that have the ability and knowledge to build IEDs and to defeat law-enforcement techniques.”

2009 DHS (MAXIMIZING ARMS DEALER REVENUES) released a report warning that the fringe was rising and that “rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat.” = First big national wave of Tea Party rallies, and to the horror of progressives, some activists showed up with signs that dared the DHS to go after “rightwing extremists” like them.

Progressives still disagree with the right-wingers = Reject, as insane, the idea a heavily armed citizenry might be safer than a country where the cops have the guns.

But they suddenly agree about something.