If there is one thing that the Ferguson riots have highlighted the growing militarization of the police. I have not seen very many mainstream stories about this in the past and now that we are seeing police use brutal methods against American citizens with armored tanks and military grade weaponry.
But the reason for the increasing militarization of the police has nothing to do with a crazy administration hell-bent on a dictatorship and complete takeover. No, it has more to do with corporatism.
During the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, defense contractors built up more and more military grade hardware. But then the wars died down and a lot of this equipment went in surplus.
So now you’re a company with a bunch of extra products to sell to a government that doesn’t want them. What do you do?
Simple, you contact your friends in said government and arrange a deal to sell off your equipment in another way. Most of these vehicles and equipment has come to local law enforcement through Department of Homeland Security grants.
Of course, when you give a bunch of wanna-be soldiers army grade gear without any proper training, they’re going to misuse it. The US military has protocol for using its stuff. They tend to be very strict with what you do with armored vehicles.
Local law enforcement has no such restrictions or discipline. And so we see them using it to catch some kid whose crime was selling $40 worth of pot to his schoolmates.