Trump To Repeal Ban On Selling Military Equipment to Local Police

By Aaron Kesel

Trump is preparing to lift a 2015 military weapons ban by his predecessor former President Barack Obama. The order effectively banned armored vehicles and large-caliber weapons from being acquired by local police departments across the nation, which effectively declares war on America’s streets, NY Post reported.

Obama’s Executive order 13688 banned the use of Defense Department armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, camouflage uniforms, and large-caliber weapons and ammunition from America’s law enforcement. With that act now repealed, Trump is allowing weapons made for war onto the streets of the United States – weapons that are designed to kill.

That’s not all the order prohibited; the purchase of weaponized aircraft such as drones, manned aircraft, armored and tactical vehicles command and control vehicles and more, according to Popular Mechanics.

At the time of the ban, Obama said that he was enacting the order because “equipment made for the battlefield is not appropriate for local police departments.”

“So we’re going to prohibit some equipment made for the battlefield that is not appropriate for local police departments,” Obama said. “There’s other equipment that may be needed in certain cases, but only with proper training.”

Congress enacted the National Defense Authorization Act in 1990, then called the 1208 program. In 1997, Congress replaced Section 1208 of the NDAA with Section 1033, which allowed the Pentagon to give their excess equipment to police fighting the war on drugs. They further added a section about counterterrorism to the bill, opening up a new list of equipment to be used by the police for whatever reason they saw fit under the 1033 program.

However, plans seen by USA Today claim that the Trump’s Administration wants to restore “the full scope of a longstanding program for recycling surplus, life-saving gear from the Department of Defense, along with restoring the full scope of grants used to purchase this type of equipment from other sources.”

“Assets that would otherwise be scrapped can be repurposed to help state, local and tribal law enforcement better protect public safety and reduce crime.”

“Much of the equipment provided through the 1033 program is entirely defensive in nature … that protect officers in active shooter scenarios and other dangerous situations,” the Trump administration proposal said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is set to address the annual meeting of the Fraternal Order of Police later today where he’s expected to announce the reinstatement of the program and the shift in policy.

The New York Post reported the publication did a review of the federal program in December 2014 and found that New York state greatly benefited from the supplies. Law enforcement agencies throughout the state accumulated an estimate of 4,000 pieces of surplus military equipment valued at more than $26 million, including 300 M-16 and M-14 military rifles, mine-resistant vehicles and Humvees.

Mines. Yes you read that right. Local police were given mines and military weapons that have been used in foreign wars. Officers, is there a war I missed? Isn’t that overkill equipment?

Here’s a powerful video where a veteran destroys a New Hampshire town hall for getting armored vehicles from the feds:

Here’s U.S. Marine Sgt. Shamar Thomas from Occupy in 2011 reminding you that the streets aren’t a war zone and to lay down your weapons.

Remember that time under Obama recorded by the ACLU that police departments were being offered tanks and an RPG? Now, what the hell does a police department need with a rocket launcher and a tank or any of these weapons?  In a large-scale terrorist attack launching any type of explosive weapon risks innocents being killed and is a danger to public safety. 

Even if it were for a strictly defensive purpose, this dangerous shift in policy would eventually be abused in some form of corruption like the security guards who falsely operated as law enforcement at the Navy’s base who stocked up on all this military gear and more for eleven long years without being caught … all on the taxpayers’ dime. That’s not all – since 9/11 police departments across the country have been able to acquire U.S. military equipment. All that banned equipment can now be used likely in a riot type scenario like we have seen across the U.S. for the past couple months as Antifa, White Supremacist groups and Trump supporters clash.

Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post and is Director of Content for Coinivore. Follow Aaron at Twitter and Steemit.

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