Military surplus equipment: Good deal or 'shadow armies' in the making?

[unhappycamper]

http://www.tauntongazette.com/article/20140824/NEWS/140828184/1994/NEWS

No longer needed on the battlefield, thousands of pieces of surplus military equipment have made their way to police departments across the country in recent years.

Military surplus equipment: Good deal or 'shadow armies' in the making?

No longer needed on the battlefield, thousands of pieces of surplus military equipment have made their way to police departments across the country in recent years.

The gear includes everything from first aid kits and wrenches to armored vehicles, machine guns and grenade launchers.

Some civil rights groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, have raised concerns over the use of military-grade equipment and tactics in law enforcement. Some lawmakers are also focusing attention on the issue.

“It’s as if shadow armies built up in police departments through the war on drugs and war on terror and have come out into the streets and suppressed First Amendment rights,” Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Project at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said after seeing scenes of heavily armed police clashing with protesters in Ferguson, Missouri.