Saturday, October 11, 2014

Why Are Police Using Military-Grade Weapons In High Schools ???

This report asks some important questions:

"In terms of a clear national picture of what kind of military equipment is going to K-12 schools through the 1033 program, we don't have a 100 percent transparent picture," says Janel George, education policy counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. That lack of transparency is one reason the Legal Defense Fund and Texas Appleseed are asking the DLA to end the 1033 program's relationship with school districts and school police departments. George also emphasizes that excessive force against students by school police is already far too common, with many school officers armed with weapons like tasers and pepper-spray. "The concern is not only the potential harm when you add in military-grade weaponry – we're talking about M16s, AR 15s and grenade launchers. It's also, how does this exacerbate existing school climates that are already tense? And how does that contribute to the criminalization of youth of color in particular?"

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-are-police-using-military-grade-weapons-in-high-schools-20141008

"Our" government is treating "our" kids as criminals and/or enemies of the state. How did this happen, and why? Who decided to open the drug floodgates, silence critics like Gary Webb, and shove our children into a school-to-prison pipeline?

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