Mittens, Not M4s: What Ferguson Police Really Got

[decocker 7,198]

The obvious question: Where did Ferguson police get the military equipment it allegedly used during the protests, and how did the department purchase it? When VICE News posed the question to the Ferguson Police Department, an officer hung up the phone on us. Three subsequent calls back resulted in the same response.

O'Connell at the Missouri Department of Public Safety said it's likely other police departments present during the protests used military gear on display. He noted St. Louis Metropolitan Police and highway patrol were the "largest participants in the unified command assisting Ferguson."

The Ferguson Police Department has purchased equipment through a Department of Homeland Security grant program. But apparently it wasn't military equipment.

"The only equipment or funds [the Missouri Department of Public Safety] has provided for Ferguson Police Department out of Homeland Security funding is one live scan fingerprinting device and connectivity, totaling $33,350," O'Connell said. He added that Ferguson police also secured late last year three car cameras and two body cameras through a Justice Assistance Grant program operated by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance.

But these are not the only ways Ferguson could acquire tactical equipment. Said O'Connell:

"We would not have any information on equipment that Ferguson acquires from outside DPS administered programs."

https://news.vice.com/article/mittens-not-m4s-what-ferguson-police-really-got-from-the-pentagons-1033-program?utm_source=vicenewsfb

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Martial law. They are purposely supplying the police with military gear to fight civilians.

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

Not sure why this is an issue. Police departments have had M16s, M4s, and M9s for years. It's not like they were using RPGs, we're they?

[Karee 4,189]

. It's not like they were using RPGs, we're they?

Depends on who you ask. I'd bet there's some here that think they were. It's all a conspiracy. Bush probably had something to do with it.

[decocker 7,198]

some of the initial concerns of militarization (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/ferguson-missouri-militarized-police-1033-program) pointed toward the 1033 program, turns out that's not where they got the equipment.

from the op.

Last weekend, President Barack Obama ordered his administration to review 1033 and other federal programs that arm local and state law enforcement agencies with military equipment to determine whether the initiatives are appropriate. A White House official told VICE News the review would also determine whether local law enforcement receives proper training to use the weaponry.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Not sure why this is an issue. Police departments have had M16s, M4s, and M9s for years. It's not like they were using RPGs, we're they?

Macon , ga had an M113 back in the 70's

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

some of the initial concerns of militarization (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/ferguson-missouri-militarized-police-1033-program) pointed toward the 1033 program, turns out that's not where they got the equipment.

from the op.

Does it matter if it came from military surplus or not? What if the dept. bought them new?

[decocker 7,198]

How does a police department lose a Humvee?

In fact, at least three other police stations have misplaced or been robbed of their government-issued Humvees in the past five years. Weapons turn up missing, too. Yahoo News found that local police departments like Palestine's have been suspended from the Pentagon 1033 program for misplacing at least 14 M16 assault rifles, 11 M14 assault rifles, 21 pistols and 10 shotguns. These figures don’t come close to representing the total number of weapons that have been stolen or lost over the life of the program, however — a figure the Defense Department has not released.

.

(Yahoo News/Gordon Donovan/AP)

In the wake of the controversy over the military-style police response to protests in Ferguson, Mo., President Barack Obama has announced that the White House is conducting a review of the 1033 program, to ensure it’s using taxpayer money wisely and is not giving police departments equipment they don’t need or shouldn’t have. A Senate committee will also examine the program in a hearing on Sept. 9.

Among the problems that Obama is likely to find is that the program lacks oversight and accountability. Once Pentagon weapons reach the 8,000 police departments — many of them in tiny towns — that participate in the program, the federal government has little control over them. The departments are not allowed to sell or dispose of any of the 1033 “controlled” items, which include small arms and tactical vehicles. An agency in each state takes over responsibility for checking the inventory once a year and reporting anything missing to the Defense Department’s Defense Logistics Agency.

But penalties for disappearing equipment are minimal. Police departments that lose semiautomatic assault rifles are not allowed to get any new gear from the program but are not required to return any of the equipment they have already received. Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., for example, can keep the 89 M16s he got through the program, even though his department was suspended in 2012 after he lost one of those rifles along with nine Colt .45 handguns.

Losing a weapon or vehicle, even something as big and expensive as a Humvee, does not mean a police department will be automatically excluded from getting more free military equipment. If departments report the equipment missing within 24 hours, they can avoid suspension entirely. The sheriff’s department in St. Francois County, Mo., has not been suspended from the program even though a man stole its 1990 Humvee in May and went on a crime spree in it, robbing a convenience store before he was finally apprehended in St. Louis County.

And suspensions can be lifted fairly easily. The police department in Meridian, Miss., signed a “corrective action plan” letter promising to keep tighter control over its loaned weapons last March after it lost four M14 assault rifles from its arsenal; the letter will most likely result in its reinstatement. Meanwhile, Sheriff Tom Jones of Grant County, Wash., said he expects to be reinstated in the program after the Washington State Patrol finishes investigating the disappearance of one of its government-issued M16 assault rifles. “One of my chief deputies is overseeing getting back on the roster,” he said.

The program has also been a magnet for fraud. The police chief of Rising Star, Texas, William Jason Kelcy, was indicted in February on charges of illegally pawning and bartering more than $4 million of equipment he got from the program, including a machine gun. (Kelcy died before his trial took place.) Meanwhile, a police officer in Columbus, Ohio, was sentenced to two years in prison for selling federal 1033 equipment for profit in 2012. A municipal audit in Nashville, Tenn., in 2008 found more than $130,000 of the federal property missing and blamed a city official for its misuse.

The 1033 program has given away $5.1 billion in equipment to local police departments since it was first authorized by Congress in 1990, according to the Defense Logistics Agency. But it’s recently come under fire, since Ferguson protests over the police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old man drew a martial police response that included cops using tactical vehicles — complete with rotating machine guns arming their turrets — for crowd control. (Ferguson police said they did not obtain weapons through the 1033 program.)

“There is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement, and we don't want those lines blurred,” Obama said last month.

http://news.yahoo.com/how-does-a-police-department-lose-a-humvee-025942542.html