Here in Bloomington, IN, we are dealing with militarization of our own police department. The story: 2015, Chief of Police and Mayor went in private talks abou

Here in Bloomington, IN, we are dealing with militarization of our own police department. The story: 2015, Chief of Police and Mayor went in private talks about armored vehicle. Over course of time, decided on a Lenco BearCat (https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2017/09/10/us-backed-kurdish-fighters-get-lenco-bearcat-armored-vehicles/ https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2017/09/10/us-back...) . Everything was hidden from public view. No discussion was made or attempted. 2 week ago in our newspaper, announced the purchase of it. After that announcement, the Police department scrambled for a Tuesday @ Noon for an "informational meeting". Chief had no information about it, options purchased, considerations of other non-military vehicles - nothing. This Thursday @ 7p was the State of the City address. BLM organized and started actively protesting after the Mayor made remarks that this is happening and meetings can be made to explain how it's used. Protest then commenced causing the State of the City to be forcefully cancelled. https://www.reddit.com/r/bloomington/comments/7xvie2/bloomington_state_of_the_city_meeting_forced_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/bloomington/comments/7xvie2/bloomin... https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/protesters-shut-hamiltons-state-city-address-141151/ https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/protesters-shut-hamilton... Edit: We all can talk about Standing Rock, which is a national disgrace. But the militarization of police is a front that's happening everywhere, including little towns in flyover parts of the country, and at liberal college campuses. This is our effort of trying to stem this tide - and so far the fruitlessness of trying so.