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The police aren't spending money on military-grade gear, they're being gifted surplus from the military. It's a minor distinction, but it's the difference betwe
by rqebmm 11y ago
The police aren't spending money on military-grade gear, they're being gifted surplus from the military. It's a minor distinction, but it's the difference between "we spend too much on the defense industry" and "we are allocating local budgets to militarizing the police".
- dragonwriter 11y ago> The police aren't spending money on military-grade gear, they're being gifted surplus from the military. They're spending money training on it, storing it, operating it, and organizing operations around it so that they can justify receiving and keeping it, as well as in personnel costs associated with the staff time devoted to doing the research, applications, etc., to be awarded it. They may not be purchasing it, but its not appearing and hanging around without expenditure of department resources.