The heavy handed overkill by the poorly trained, wannabe GI Joes in Ferguson, Missouri prompted President Obama and even the Pentagon to promise to review the military’s wholesale giveaway of a dizzying array of tanks, body armor, and assault-style weapons to big and small city police department. Obama was rightly aghast that the gobbling up by police departments of weapons of mass destruction had gotten way out of hand and the nation had taken a dangerous step toward the establishment of a full blown national security state that posed a mortal threat to the lives and constitutional rights of Americans. Obama also noted that the review would determine whether police departments were given proper training in the use of any of these weapons.
School officials insist that their officers will be well-trained in the use of their military-style weapons. But this misses the point. Military-style weapons are designed for combat, and they are designed to spray a field of battle wreaking mass carnage against the ranks of enemy soldiers.
Opening up on a mythical shooter in a grade school could cause the same mass carnage. The difference is the victims would not be enemy soldiers on a battleground, but 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. School officials haven’t said how they would avoid that carnage. In ordering his review of the military weapons programs, Obama said “there is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement and we don’t want to blur those lines.” School officials that have armed their police with assault-style weapons have done more than blur that line. They have sent the horrific message that weapons of mass destruction have a place at their schools.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Radio Los Angeles and KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network.
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