The Militarization Of Police Forces

Recently, the issue of the militarization of police forces has become a major issue in the media. Following the events in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland, the question became very relevant; is it okay for police forces to use military equipment? The debate had two very clear sides with very few in between. The question involves, police use of bayonets, armored vehicles, shields, tear gasses, and gas masks. On Monday, May 18, 2015, in Camden, New Jersey, Barack Obama and his administration, moved to prohibit federal agencies from providing, police officers with certain kinds of military equipment, such as grenade launchers, high-caliber weapons and bayonets. This came after the controversy over a militarized police response to the rioting and unrest last summer in Ferguson, Missouri (Perez, Liptak, & Malloy, 2015). Even with these restrictions, police forces are still able to purchase this baned equipment from private sellers.

This issue of the militarization of police forces and many other issues in criminal justice, such as; mandatory minimum sentences, overcrowded prisons, and bloated criminal justice budgets, have become a bipartisan issue. Jonathan Blanks’s, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America 's Police Forces, looks at all these issues, but mostly focuses on the militarization of police forces and the rise of the “warrior cop”. Blanks suggests that the rise of the warrior cop began as far back as patrols in ancient Rome, the shire reeves in medieval England, and the slave patrols in the antebellum south (Blanks, 2014). In the past 40 years, there has been a drastic change from police officers patrolling on foot in neighborhoods, to the aggressive teams of police officers serving warrants on...

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...zation of police forces. Some feel that the militarization helps make police forces more successful while other see the militarization of police forces as a negative that is detrimental to the people living in the areas that are affected by the militarization. The recent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland has caused the issue the become a hot topic in the media. The Obama administration’s act of prohibiting federal agencies from providing police forces with grenade launchers, high-caliber weapons and bayonets is in response to the outcry from the media about the military equipment used in the unrest in Ferguson and Baltimore. Even with Obama riding police forces of that equipment, the question still remains should police forces still be able to purchase this equipment from private vendors. Should police forces be allowed any police equipment at all?