MOSCOW, December 1 (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — The allocation of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) terrorist fighting machines to cities and counties across the United States by the Department of Defense is a sign of the further militarization of the American police which is turning into an army, a staff member of Syracuse Peace Council told Sputnik on Monday.
“I felt horrified when I saw it [MRAP]. I think that police departments across this country are becoming more and more militarized. And the Defense Department is part of that process,” Carol Baum from Syracuse Peace Council said.
The Department of Defense has given the city of Syracuse, NY a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle worth $658,000 which resembles those used in Iraq to protect soldiers from improvised explosive devices (IED) attacks. Syracuse is a city with a population of 144,669, as of 2013 and MRAP will become yet another tank at the police’s disposal here, adding to the BearCat.
“I don’t think the police need this kind of equipment; I think it is part of militarizing our society in this country. And all this equipment make police enforcement a sort of an army, more militarized than it even was and I think that’s the point,” Carol Baum, also a police activist said.
She added that this is a very inappropriate piece of equipment for such a small department, but they take it because it is free.
Syracuse is one of nine local governments to be given mine-resistant vehicles worth a total of $5.7 million. According to the US government’s 1033 program, hundreds of other local governments will also soon be the recipients of surplus US military equipment.
“When you have the equipment, it is very hard not to use it. In Syracuse they say they won’t use it too much, but there is another piece of the equipment that they use some 10 times a year. So they claim they are not going to use it, but it is really hard when you have it,” Baum told Sputnik when asked what could be the potential consequences of police having such equipment.
Carol Baum also noted that the whole idea of giving such equipment to police is control. “There is a lot of fear out there and I think it is just a form of control.”
The issue is particularly alarming, given the recent events in Ferguson, where police clashed with the protesters, following the killing of 18-year-old African-American Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson on August 9. Another St. Louis African-American teenager of the same age, Vonderrit Myers, was shot dead by an off-duty white police officer on October 8.
