After we shrunk the size of our military in the 1990s, closed a bunch of bases etc there was a surplus of military hardware that was no longer being purchased b

After we shrunk the size of our military in the 1990s, closed a bunch of bases etc there was a surplus of military hardware that was no longer being purchased by the military. Mysteriously at the same time we passed a bill allowing police to do things like buy tanks etc under the guise of anti-riot equipment, despite not needing it before for well over a century. All sorts of equipment deemed only necessary for fighting wars on foreign soil, suddenly became part of the equipment catalog for rural police forces in places like Vermont and New Hampshire. The concept that the local police force and national military should own/use the same equipment is fairly recent, only happening in the last 25 years, and in great numbers only post-9/11.