President Obama's comments on Ferguson today and his plans for helping to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Courtesy of the USA Today:  

The government will try to reduce the "simmering distrust" between police and minority communities, President Obama said Monday, in part by issuing new rules for military-style equipment and seeking more cameras to be worn by law enforcement officers. 

"This is not a problem simply of Ferguson, Missouri," Obama said after a day of meetings with local government and law enforcement officials from across the country. "This is a problem that is national." 

The president announced a new task force to study best police practices, as well as tighter controls on federal money that local law enforcement agencies use to buy military-style equipment. 

The goal, Obama said, is "to make sure that we're not building a militarized culture inside our local law enforcement." The Obama administration also unveiled a three-year, $263 million plan to assist community policing, including a $75 million plan for 50,000 new body cameras to be worn by officers. 

The president said that community policing can help make officers and their communities "partners" in battling crime and promoting safety. "We can build confidence and we can build trust, but it's not going to happen overnight," Obama said.

Dealing with the militarization of the police and putting more body cameras on more police officers will surely have a dramatic effect. But of course there are still the systemic problems of underlying racism, a lack of respect for the communities that they serve, and a John Wayne mentality that needs to be addressed as well among many police officers in this country.

For most communities in this country there is simply no need to provide armored vehicles and military style body armor and weapons to our police. And once they have them, it will obviously make them feel like soldiers at war instead of peace keepers at home.

I think even with the President taking these steps and expressing his frustration at the events that took place in Ferguson, that too many people still see the color of his skin and simply categorize this as a "black" problem that the majority of Americans simply do not need to worry about, or take steps to deal with.

Ultimately this needs to stop being seen as a "black" problem, and needs to be seen as an "American" problem.

Only then will there be serious, and long term attempt to protect ALL Americans from brutality at the hands of the people we hire to keep us safe.

Texas school districts stocking up on military grade weaponry and armored vehicles. Wait, school districts?

Campus police in other parts of the country

Texas campus police of the future.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

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.