Following up on growing concern
about the militarization of American police departments in the wake
of the Michael Brown
shooting and official reaction to resulting protests, the
New York Times published a
map that breaks down the distribution of military equipment to
law enforcement agencies around the United States. The equipment
can be sorted by type and by county. It turns out that Connecticut
has been an especially enthusiastic participant in the federal
government’s 1033 program for dispensing surplus armor, gear,
and weapons to police. That includes 748 assault rifles snapped up
by cops in a state that
cracked down on civilian ownership of scary rifles very
recently.
The map specifies that “Recipients may include state and local
agencies based in this county,” but that sort of differentiation
hardly matters given the hostility of so many government officials
(and
right-thinking editorialists) to firearms ownership by the
unwashed masses.
According to the map, Connecticut counties received assault
rifles in the following numbers since 2006.
- Fairfield County: 245
- Hartford County: 231
- Litchfield County: 19
- Middlesex County: 6
- New Haven County: 137
- New London County: 56
- Tolland County: 23
- Windham County: 31
Because, as the last week has demonstrated, professional police
agencies can be trusted with loads of military toys. But
civilians…Well, I guess we just have to watch out, carefully, for
the professionals.
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