End Police Militarization

“If elected, I will sponsor and work diligently to pass legislation to prohibit the acquisition, ownership, or use of military-grade equipment by state/local police.”

Why immediately end police militarization

• Police forces around the United States are becoming dangerously militarized in both tactics and equipment.
• The federal government sells military surplus to local governments — including armored personnel carriers, rocket-propelled grenades, and tactical equipment.
• Police perform SWAT raids on homes of suspected drug offenders. Sometimes they enter the wrong house. Sometimes they shoot and kill innocent Americans.
• Police should be peacekeepers who protect the people of their communities and serve them with respect, not as an occupying army.
• Ending police militarization will take away the pretext for excessive use of force and leave police with just one crime-fighting mandate: go after only those who pose a real threat to others.
• In Ferguson, Missouri, the police used armored vehicles and imposed an undeclared martial law, not allowing citizens to stand in one spot for more than 5 seconds. No ordinance was passed, nor were there any orders from any chief executive with the authority to impose such a restriction. The police took it upon themselves to enforce, with automatic weapons, a nonexistent law.
• This led to unrest and racial tension that continues to reverberate throughout America.
• Ending police militarization will reduce tension, reduce unrest, and make American communities safer.