Attorney General Jeff Sessions looks on during a vigil ceremony marking the September 11 terrorist attacks at the Department of Justice on September 11, 2017, in Washington, DC. Credit: Zach Gibson
Sending an ominous signal to student protest movements nationwide, universities across the US are once again able to equip their police forces with castoff military gear, tying them ever more intimately into the military-industrial complex.
In August, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced at a Fraternal Order of Police convention that Program 1033 would resume providing ex-military equipment to police organizations, including university police departments.
Program 1033 has been running since the 1990s but was stopped two years ago by President Obama. Part of the program’s initial aim was for “use in drug enforcement by federal and state law enforcement.” As we well know, the “war on drugs” has been an abysmal failure.
At least 117 educational institutions are now armed and armored. This is the state of higher education in the US.
As part of the program, already at least 117 colleges […]
The headline is very misleading. The story notes that two, of the 117 institutions took the grenade launchers. Most got things like gauze and standard trucks. Over 90 percent of the “military equipment” in the entire program had nothing to do with weapons.