Is Trump right to militarise US Police?

Trump signs executive order lifting Obama-era ban on police departments getting surplus military equipment – including armored vehicles and grenade launchers
President Trump is set to sign an executive order Monday that will overturn a military equipment ban for law enforcement officials
Attorney General Jeff Sessions discussed the plan during the annual meeting of Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville, Tennessee
Under the plan, an Obama-era executive order would be overturned
Trump's new order will reinstate police departments' ability to obtain firearms, bayonets, 50-caliber ammunition, riot shields – and even grenade launchers
Obama's executive order was first put into place amid controversy following a militarized police response to 2014 race riots in Ferguson, Missouri

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malizz · 70-79, M

Obama only banned it to stop the rot that was already setting. Looks like the hawks have got round Trump again.

katielass · F

No, obama was hell bent on tying law enforcement's hands behind their backs.

Gauntlets28 · 26-30, M

@katielass In all seriousness, I can't see how a ban on military weapons could be considered 'tying law enforcement's hands' though. It's not like any good police department is going to level an entire block is it? The way I see it, all it does is keep army grade destruction out of the hands of any police that are corrupt/any criminals who can get their hands on what the cops have.

katielass · F

@Gauntlets28 I guess you missed what obama did to our law enforcement in this country. They have never been militarized but the idiots on the left have claimed they were. obama and his injustice department stuck their nose into state business, against the constitution, and literally took their power away by threatening to label them racist. You morons listen to "stats" that seem to show that a disproportionate percentage of blacks are stopped by police, etc. but no one bothers to point out that more blacks are out driving and walking around than white people. Well, if you[re out in public instead of inside your home the chance of being stopped is going to be greater. Just threatening to label someone racist is enough to get someone to do what you want, and that is wrong. If your agenda is right it wont need to be forced.

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Gauntlets28 · 26-30, M

@katielass If there weren't any "militarised police" in the first place, then the ban on military weaponry won't have done anything to affect that beyond guaranteeing that the police remained "unmilitarised". So what purpose does it serve to remove the ban on obscene and unnecessary hardware? Nothing but to give the police, who are still civilians despite what they might claim, the capability to possess destructive power beyond what they should never be allowed to have.
So apparently black people are the only ones that step beyond their front doors anymore in the USA? No wonder you guys have an obesity problem... As for your disregard for statistics, certainly they're open to interpretation, but what do you think can be substituted for data? Imaginings? Fantasies? Blind guesses? Sad as it might seem, statistics are still the best way to understand the wider world. It's not the data's fault if people aren't using it correctly.