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| Campus police in other parts of the country |
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| Texas campus police of the future. |
Taking advantage of U.S. Defense Department offers of free or low-cost military hardware, Texas school districts have been helping themselves to high-powered weaponry, bullet-proof vests, and armored vehicles to militarize their campus police officers.
A KHOU investigation shows that ten school districts in Texas have been acquiring the military surplus under a government program that allows them to load up at little to no cost.
According to the investigation, the districts have acquired 64 M-16 rifles, 18 M-14 rifles, 25 automatic pistols, extended magazines, and 4,500 rounds of ammunition. Additionally, the schools stocked up on armored plating, tactical vests, as well as 15 surplus military vehicles.
In the wake of the over-the-top military-like response by police in Ferguson to protestors, not everyone is thrilled by the idea of campus police outfitted like SWAT teams.
“We don’t necessarily believe that this kind of equipment leads to students feeling more secure and safe in schools,” said Brennan Griffin of Texas Appleseed, which has been studying police on campus policies for years.
“We’ve seen how even much less-lethal devices like Tasers and pepper spray get used inappropriately and end up harming children,” he told the KHOU.
Yeah no shit.
There have been plenty of reports of students being pepper sprayed, tazed, or handcuffed with little provocation. What happens when the responding officers drive up in an armored vehicle?
Leave it Texas to take the molehill of occasional school shootings and turn it into a mountain of campus terrorism that they must nuke out of existence.
You know, I think even in war-torn countries they do not have this type of militarization of schools. I have never even SEEN a cop, let alone a militarized one, on school grounds in Europe...
ReplyDeleteProbably not enough money for textbooks or lab equipment or for more teachers to assure smaller class sizes, but . . . .
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Students have few rights in school. These police can do what they want to, with few repercussions.
ReplyDeleteIt is something you might expect from Texas one of the states that make up the Axis of Crazy in our country.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the 12,000 bayonets didn't go to school cops.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vox.com/2014/9/3/6101895/charts-police-militarization-1033-program-obama-administration
The View lands Nicolle Wallace and Rosie Perez as co-hosts. The pair will join Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie O'Donnell on the show that's getting a makeover from top to bottom..
ReplyDeleteWhat could possibly go wrong?
ReplyDeleteTin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio
Four dead in Ohio
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
"Should have been done long ago"
What if you knew her and
You found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
---Neil Young
Thank you, Randall.
DeleteHow sad that great song is still topical.
As is this one from Young's bandmate, Stephen Stills:
There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Should make burning the books a lot easier.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of eastern Europe before the fall of communism. Thank goodness Saint Ronnie took care of that problem.
Honestly, these need to be handled by the National Guard; Make the police give all of their toys back to the National Guard, and prepare quick response units for fast reaction and flexibility without the improper arming of a civilian force.
ReplyDeleteThis is becoming a disaster, and our National Guards already know exactly how to use those items and don't have to come up with a reason to use it every so often to "justify funding the maintenence/storage/training/etc."