"Maybe the 1033 Program Needs to be Rethought a Mite"

That would seem to be the current line from the MTAHNS.

President Obama has ordered a review of federal programs that supplied nearly half a billion dollars in military equipment to municipal police departments last year, amid criticism of the heavily armed response by local law enforcement agencies to protests in Ferguson, Mo.

The review probably will include the Defense Department’s Excess Property program, which is designed to give away tents, generators, pickup trucks and all-terrain vehicles, as well as military aircraft, grenade launchers and heavily armed tactical vehicles.

Here's a big shocker: The denizens of Ft. Fumble don't think that there is a problem with handing out military-grade hardware to the Barney Fifes of the land.

The Pentagon’s Excess Property Program, sometimes known as the 1033 Program, has supplied police departments across the country with more than $4.3 billion in gear since 1997, including $449 million in 2013. Its use in Ferguson has come under scrutiny by civil rights advocates, but Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the program also has assisted police across the United States in counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism operations that “get right to the protection of the homeland.”

“I want to make sure that it’s clear that this isn’t some program run amok here, or that there isn’t proper accountability,” Kirby said. “There is. And it’s well thought-out.”

Riight. As in "hey, we're not giving them A-10s and cluster bombs, fer Pete's sake."

And you don't have to go very far to find the cops giving out the tired old statist line of "if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear." Which is, in this case, bullshit. Peaceful protesting, peaceful reporting, standing in your own front yard even sitting in a McDonald's were worthy of a forceful police response in Ferguson.

There is a shitload of research to back up the premise that a heavy-duty rollout to a peaceful demonstration is one of the best ways to provoke a riot. The cops in Ferguson, Missouri and St. Louis County either ignored that research or, more likely, never heard of it. They apparently took their riot-control tactics from Sheriff Bull Connor's playbook, right down to using German Shepard dogs to intimidate the protestors and blaming everything on "outside agitators".

Maybe the cops need some of that milspec stuff. I'm skeptical. The evidence of police over-use of military-grade hardware is undeniable.

And so is their lack of training. I know of a gun club that ran a "shop with a cop" PPC match a few years back. The club raised quite a bit of money, mostly through donations, and some in match fees. The club delivered promotional flyers to all of the cop shops and lockups within a goodly distance, all prominently highlighted with the legend that the match fees would be waived for all active-duty LEOs.

Care to guess how many cops showed up to shoot in the match?

Not a single one.

The match organizers made some unofficial inquiries afterwards as to why the dearth of LEOs for a match that supported a LEO charity. The excuse given was along the lines of "hell, none of our guys can shoot as good as you guys can. They didn't want to show up and be embarrassed."

Those. mind you, are the same guys that are being outfitted with more hardware than a Marine infantryman in Fallujah, courtesy of DasGov.

Goddamn right that the 1033 program needs to be rethought a little.