Republicans have attempted to attribute the lack of an adequate response to climate disaster, such as the incident where commuters were stuck on the Virginia I-95 for 27 hours due to a devastating winter storm, on the suggestion that Democrats have opposed the 1033 program. Increased militarization of the police has not led to lesser crime nor has it made police safer. Grenade launchers, MRAPs and similar equipment would have had no practical use in saving commuters who were stranded in below-freezing temperatures without food, medication and fuel for 27 hours. 

Both parties have consistently voted to increase the military and police budgets across the country instead of investing in infrastructure and curbing climate disaster. Most police departments, as noted in a recent investigation and our last newsletter, rarely use this militarized equipment for severe weather events. Furthermore, the U.S. military emits more greenhouse gasses than 140 countries combined in addition to using this equipment internationally and domestically to brutalize colonized people in an effort to protect oil supply interests. 

This coastal town needs federal aid for climate adaptation. Instead it’ll get a military truck.

  • Rather than counties receiving federal funds to help combat rising sea levels, they are instead receiving military equipment

  • This has been in large part a recent trend by law enforcement to justify its usage of the 1033 program to acquire military equipment for “climate change” mitigation

  • Sheriffs in Johnson County, Iowa have used the military mine–resistant vehicles they claimed were using to help plow through blizzards; instead, they were used against BLM protestors

Johnson County Sheriff’s army truck is here to stay

  • Johnson County, Iowa law enforcement has been battling for months to continue their usage of military vehicles

  • The Johnson County Board of Supervisors has been increasingly ambivalent about unnecessarily funding and spending for law enforcement, a sign indicating a possible route towards reducing police funding

  • Supervisors have begun funding community outreach instead of a new vehicle
     

Additional Stories

Banner photo: SWAT teams advancing through a parking lot as a gunman opened fire at a grocery store in March of last year in Colorado. (Chet Strange / Getty Images)