Throughout the past decade, brutal scenes of heavy-handed police response towards peaceful protestors, most recently the George Floyd protests, bluntly showcased how violent the police have become. Similar to the Ferguson protests of 2014, the latest unrest has brought the issue of police brutality and the over militarization of police departments to the forefront of national discourse.
Calls for defunding the police have been gaining traction, with certain counties and areas in the United States already contemplating measures to that end.
How exactly did the police become so militarized?
Reagan and the 1033 program
With the pretext of fighting the war on drugs, Reagan was inaugurated and oversaw the passing of several legislations that beefed up the relationship between the police and the military, and subsequent administrations further oversaw the expansion of these programs. In 1990, the 1033 program was developed, giving the military the passage to provide police departments with excess military equipment for free. This led to police acquiring military grade weapons, tanks, armories and logistics, to better fight drug related crimes.
However, by the 21st century, the response of the police against petty crimes and peaceful protests have become increasingly violent. The Black Lives Matter, a controversial movement borne out of the disproportionate use of police violence against the black community, has frequently raised awareness on the issue of police brutality.
Defund the police
Calls for defunding the police have been echoed frequently in last decade; the George Floyd protest only exacerbated that call. Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and other similar movements have raised concerns about the disproportionate funding that police departments receive, far more than other programs such as homeless services, housing, and health programs.
Activists and public supporters are demanding authorities to re-evaluate allocation of funds towards the police and redirect a part of it to other programs, in order to establish a proportionally funded public programs system.
Although in certain cases, the military grade weapons have come in handy when tackling heavily armed criminals; however, they are largely isolated incidents. More often than not, police units have been overly armed, and this has caused them to become more violent in handling peaceful protests and low-level crimes that simply do not demand as much equipment.
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