Jacob Sullum on the Promiscuous Use of SWAT Teams in a Literalized War on Drugs

Contrary to what you may have heard,
the armored vehicles that appeared on the streets of
Ferguson, Missouri, during the unrest that followed the police
shooting of Michael Brown did not come from the Pentagon. “Most of
the stuff you are seeing in video coming out of Ferguson is not
military,” Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Defense Department’s press
secretary, told reporters last week. “The military is not
the only source of tactical gear in this country.” In other words:
Don’t blame the military for militarizing the police.

Jacob Sullum says Kirby has a point. Although the Pentagon has
played a role by distributing surplus gear to police
departments, so have the Justice Department and the Department of
Homeland Security by providing grants that can be used to
buy military-style equipment. In any case, Sullum says, the real
problem, more pervasive and insidious than BearCats or MRAPs on the
streets of our cities, is the dangerously misguided urge to
transform cops into soldiers, as reflected in the promiscuous use
of SWAT teams.

View this article.