IN THE WAKE OF FERGUSON, HOW IS PRESIDENT OBAMA RESPONDING TO POLICE MILITARIZATION AROUND THE COUNTRY?

1. OBAMA WANTS TO BUY 50,000 POLICE BODY CAMERAS

President Obama asked Congress for $75 million over three years to subsidize the purchase of up to 50,000 body-worn cameras for local police. Administration officials said the program is part of a $263 million budget request that also includes money for law enforcement training, as well as more resources to reform police departments. Do you think this will be an effective & efficient use of money?

2. OBAMA APPOINTS TASK FORCE

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey & former Assistant Attorney General Laurie Robinson will chair a task force on modern police practices. They should release a report in three months. BTW quick note on Ramsey - the ACLU has filed five lawsuits on behalf of people who were restrained or attacked while recording Philadelphia police officers. The ACLU says the department (under Ramsey's watch) has used excessive force repeatedly to stop civilians from filming officers in public in recent years.

3. WHITE HOUSE FINALLY RELEASES REPORT ON POLICE MILITARIZATION

While Congress has proposed legislation to curb these military equipment programs, the White House is taking no position. Instead of taking a real stance, the White House says that it wants "greater scrutiny" on how police operate & utilize these military-grade weapons - this basically means he will create more bureaucracy for police departments.

4. AND THERE'S AN EXECUTIVE ORDER ON MILITARY EQUIPMENT

The ACLU studied law enforcement's use of military hardware and found that it was mostly used as part of our useless war on drugs, and of course disproportionately against people of color. Obama’s executive order pushes civilian review boards to approve police requests for military equipment. Also, he seems to believe this is about "training" and how the equipment is used by local cops.

Here's President Obama speaking to reporters about police militarization and Ferguson yesterday:  

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ora Media, LLC its affiliates, or its employees.

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