Scott interviews Wayne McElrath about the proliferation of military equipment in America’s police forces, and its harmful effect on police practices. McElrath describes the process by which local police departments are given “outdated” equipment from the military, like body armor, automatic weapons and armored vehicles. To prove how alarmingly easy it is to get hold of this equipment, McElrath and his team created a fake police department and submitted deliberately vague and spurious requests to the Pentagon, which were approved. McElrath contends that this militarization has a powerful effect on the psyches of police officers and on the communities they serve, making the relationship more like that of an occupying force than of a public service organization.
Discussed on the show:
- “Police reform begins with cutting Pentagon money, militarization program” (USA Today)
- “7/17/20 Ted Carpenter on the Bogus Russian Bounties Story” (The Libertarian Institute)
Wayne McElrath is a Senior Investigative Advisor to the Project on Government Oversight and is the former Director of Forensic Investigations with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Follow him on Twitter @mcelrath_wayne.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.
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