L.A. School Cops Give Up Grenade Launchers … But Keep the M-16s, MRAP

One week ago, courtesy of
MuckRock’s
enormous database, I highlighted the fact that the Los Angeles
Unified School District Police Department acquired
three grenade launchers along with other military gear, and
questioned how well this squares with the department’s mission to
“provide a safe and tranquil
environment in which the educational process can take
place.” 

This week, due to mounting pressure, the cops who serve the
nation’s second-largest school district are giving up some
equipment. The Los Angeles Times has
details:

In a letter to the Department of Defense’s logistics agency, a
coalition of education and civil rights groups said the presence of
weapons on campuses will only intensify existing tensions at
schools and exacerbate punitive atmospheres that criminalize and
stigmatize students of color.

Deborah Fowler, deputy director of Texas Appleseed, a social
justice nonprofit, said in a statement that other more common
weapons used by officers and security guards, such as Tasers and
pepper spray, have been misused in schools. Much of this excessive
force is targeted at students of color and those with disabilities,
she said.

So, the department said uncle and has agreed return the
grenade launchers. The cops are not budging on the other stuff they
got, though. They insist that the mine-resistant ambush-protected
vehicle and 61 M-16 rifles they’ve got in the playground arsenal
are “essential life-saving items,” so those are here to stay.

One L.A. school officer who declined to be named
assured Reuters that the MRAP, a vehicle that weighs upward of
14 tons and was designed to fight
asymmetrical warfare against Iraqi insurgents, would be used
only in “very specific circumstances.” He wouldn’t elaborate.

Schools and small towns acquire all these sorts of war toys
through the Defense Department’s 1033 Program, which since 2006 has
for the cost of shipping given domestic law enforcement
some 80,000
rifles, 12,000 bayonets, $3.6 million worth of camouflage, and
much more. In total, the program has transferred over $5
billion worth of surplus military equipment.

Reuters notes that “President Barack Obama ordered a review of
the program out of concern at how such equipment had been used
during racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting
death of a black teen by a white policeman last month.” Likewise,
from the
Associated Press, Congress is “considering doing more to
monitor and hold accountable police departments across the United
States that obtain sophisticated military equipment from the
federal government.”