The Hidden Militarization of the United States & More News Here

The United States has a weapons drawback. There are 120.5 firearms for each 100 residents, which is a troubling statistic that ought to get extra consideration as college shootings proceed terrorizing communities all through the United States, with the newest tragedy occurring at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.

However, the oversaturation of privately owned weapons is indicative of the bigger establishment of US militarization that pumps out and distributes weapons not solely to the US army and to people but in addition the police. Police violence in opposition to US residents occupied public consideration in the summer season of 2020: police utilized gear from the army and personal suppliers, firing tear gasoline and rubber bullets, and deploying drones and helicopters to surveil and disperse protests. The 1033 Program — named for the part that created it in the 1997 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — permits for the switch of surplus US army tools to US regulation enforcement businesses and subsequently permits gross overuse of such tools in opposition to civilians. However, the 1033 Program is just one program that permits native and state businesses to acquire tools with the federal authorities’s assist.

The 1122 Program, which was created in 1994 and expanded in 2009, is managed by the Defense Logistics Agency, the Department of the Army, and the General Services Administration. As described by the Defense Logistics Agency, “The 1122 Program enables state and local governments to take advantage of the discounts available to the federal government due to its large-volume purchases.” In phrases of utilization, regulation enforcement businesses are licensed to buy tools below the 1122 Program for “counter drug, homeland security, and emergency response operations.”

Our function in calling for higher transparency of 1122 is to not restore public belief in policing however quite to allow correct assessments of harm by police upon communities and the threat of potential harm by an more and more militarized police.

The 1122 Program, nevertheless, doesn’t conduct audits. The justification is that it’s “not a grant or transfer program,” and tools purchased by 1122 instantly turns into the property of buying businesses, famous a New York State Point of Contact for the 1122 Program. Yet, managed gadgets accessible by the Army are ostensibly loaned to regulation enforcement businesses. Thus, there’s a motive for alarm that there’s not an audit course of in place for 1122. Without inside auditing, the 1122 Program fails to create safeguards to guard in opposition to improper use of tools obtained by it. The program’s lack of significant checks and balances has broader implications for American society.

Currently, a recognized centralized database of 1122 program purchases doesn’t exist. However, Women for Weapons Trade Transparency lately accomplished our year-long investigation into the 1122 Program. The investigation revealed over $42 million of decentralized, never-before-seen information on purchases by the program. Our function in calling for higher transparency of 1122 is to not restore public belief in policing however quite to allow correct assessments of harm by police upon communities and the threat of potential harm by an more and more militarized police. Additionally, an absence of company accountability for monitoring purchases below the 1122 Poragm has demonstrated the grave want for a critical examination of the harms finished by this program and by US police forces extra broadly.

BARRIERS TO TRANSPARENCY

Throughout our efforts to retrieve information on state and native businesses taking part in the 1122 Program, we encountered an absence of standardization throughout strategies of information assortment, storage, and record-keeping. For instance, yearly required utilization types submitted by businesses diversified throughout states. Also, few states supplied public info on the bureaucratic procedures of the program. This is as a result of there isn’t a requirement in the NDAA legal guidelines for a centralized course of of archiving this information. A scarcity of “interagency coordination and uniform standards” made discovering sufficient information on present stock difficult. The General Services Administration, one of the main facilitators of the 1122 Program, denied that they collected information on transfers. As a outcome, credible and compelling information and data on 1122 stay sparse as a consequence of inconsistent reporting necessities at the state and nationwide ranges.

Unfortunately, an absence of constant record-keeping is just not the solely barrier to transparency and accountability inside these applications. Obtaining police data by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests is notoriously troublesome as a consequence of Exemption 7 restrictions, which particularly defend info compiled for regulation enforcement functions. The exemptions had been created to guard the security of people, stop folks from circumventing the regulation, and above all, protect the opaque regulation enforcement and surveillance strategies that proceed to be in use at present. For instance, in 26 states, police misbehavior data are protected by state FOIA legal guidelines, which signifies that they’re thought of “confidential” and are in place to “protect” the authorized enforcement proceedings. And, with out entry to monetary assets or a FOIA lawyer, US residents face much more obstacles to overcoming obscurity. In addition, varied state interpretations of FOIA legal guidelines end in totally different ranges of accountability, not just for police departments however for presidency businesses throughout the United States. This poses important obstacles to FOIA requesters, who should navigate a number of authorized methods and statutes with the intention to get hold of data.

The nationwide information we acquired solely accounts for a fraction of the info we had been in a position to accumulate at the state stage. Jan Janik, Colorado’s State Point of Contact for the 1122 Program, estimated $1 million in annual car purchases by the state. This quantity contrasts the below $400,000 of nationwide buy information between 2017 and 2021 that the Defense Logistic Agency reported to us. The inconsistent information throughout native, state, and nationwide ranges uncovers a disturbing actuality that taking part states and the federal authorities largely don’t account for 1122 transfers.

On high of poor record-keeping at state and native ranges, the General Services Administration denied that they possessed any data of purchases below 1122 on the federal stage, regardless of data we obtained from regulation enforcement businesses displaying thousands and thousands of {dollars} of purchases from the administration. This presents an unlimited concern: The obscurity from an absence of constant information prevents the public from understanding how 1122 works. Women for Weapons Trade Transparency is in the course of of requesting information from the Army, however our FOIA request is overdue. Unfortunately, we’ve got not acquired any indication that they’re working to satisfy our request, regardless of a number of makes an attempt at contacting them.

MILITARIZATION AT HOME AND ABROAD

The United States maintains the highest stage of army spending globally: greater than the subsequent 11 nations mixed. Total US police drive budgets would rank as the world’s third-highest army expenditure. But when the Department of Defense transfers or sells tools to police, it positive factors a justification for rising its funds, as police function a further buyer. And as the DOD’s funds continues to extend, it obtains extra extra property to switch to regulation enforcement businesses by applications, resembling 1033, and more cash to funnel to firms that additionally promote gadgets by 1122. As a outcome, regulation enforcement businesses, resembling Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, are rising in measurement and scope. For instance, in the Biden administration’s latest funds proposal, ICE’s funds is about to extend by 13%, making it $8.1 billion.

According to the Defense Logistics Agency, “law enforcement agencies can obtain military-style equipment from multiple [emphasis added] federal government programs that provide support through grants or property transfers.” This cyclical militarization will increase the capacities of the US army and US regulation enforcement businesses to regulate and oppress people internationally and domestically, all the whereas emboldening excesses of army contractors. While the United States stays the largest particular person arms exporter in the world, the 1122 Program is one of a number of hyperlinks between world and native violence.

The newest Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report on traits in worldwide arms transfers states that the United States accounted for 37% of all weapons exported globally from 2016 to 2020. Commenting on anti-Black police violence in Brazil and its similarities to heightened police repression of racial justice protests in the United States in 2020, anthropologist Christen Smith writes, “If a war logic is structuring our police forces, then what we’re seeing on the streets is exactly what we play out in other countries.” In different phrases, if the United States’ largest export is violence, the Pentagon’s waste accumulating at house inherently places folks in peril.

In occasions of warfare, there is just one clear winner: weapons producers. About one-third of the $14 trillion value of DOD spending since the starting of the warfare in Afghanistan has gone to weapons producers. It is vital to keep in mind that the United States has a protracted historical past of utilizing exterior wars to validate militarization each at house and overseas — and that US authorities businesses actively assist and abet this militarization by their shrouding of applications, resembling 1122, in secrecy. Visit our 1122 Program abolition advocacy toolkit to take motion.

Mek Belayneh, Olivia Owens, Lillian Mauldin, and Rosie Khan are all members of Women for Weapons Trade Transparency, a non-profit selling transparency of the weapons and arms commerce. Their staff collaborates extensively on analysis tasks, activism campaigns, and organizational growth. The mission of Women for Weapons Trade Transparency is threefold: to advertise the accessibility of details about the worldwide weapons commerce by the publication of simply interpretable analysis, to advocate for humane, sustainable, progressive, and anti-imperialist coverage, and to empower ladies of their careers and uplift their voices of their advocacy.

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