Trump Allows Military to Give Cops Grenade Launchers and Tanks Again

(ANTIMEDIA) Washington, D.C. — On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new executive order that will lift a ban on the distribution of certain types of military-style equipment to local law enforcement agencies. The ban reverses a previous executive order issued during the Obama administration in response to widespread criticism after a paramilitary-like show of force by police during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015.

“We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like there’s an occupying force as opposed to a force that’s part of the community that’s protecting them and serving them,” Obama said at the time. “It can alienate and intimidate local residents and send the wrong message.”

Civil rights experts are voicing the same concerns now that the Trump administration has announced a rollback on Obama’s ban. “We’re very worried that this signals to law enforcement that they can operate more as a militarized force and they are really going to ignore some of the gains we’ve made over the past couple years,” said political director for the ACLU of Michigan Shelli Weisberg.“We’re very concerned about it. We think it’s a bad step.”

Janai Nelson, associate director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said:

“It is both exceptionally dangerous and irresponsible for the administration to lift the ban on the transfer of certain surplus military equipment to state and local law enforcement organizations.”