Congress urges Biden to issue executive order on police militarization

Speaking Security Newsletter | Advisory Note for Organizers and Candidates, n°75 | 6 April 2021

Apr 7, 2021

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American police departments are armed to the teeth with military-grade weaponry like Humvees and assault rifles. Nothing is stopping President Biden from shutting down this military-to-police pipeline right away.

jacobinmag.comJoe Biden Could Easily Recall the Billions in Military Equipment Police Received From the PentagonAmerican police departments are armed to the teeth with military-grade weaponry like Humvees and assault rifles. Nothing is stopping President Biden from shutting down this military-to-police pipeline right away.

Situation

Rep. Johnson and 28 other members of Congress sent a letter to Biden today requesting that he issue an executive order (EO) based on a bill Johnson recently introduced that reforms the Pentagon’s 1033 program (press release, here; full letter, here):

Probably because it comes across as verbose and lame as all hell, this letter dramatically undersells just how progressive this ask actually is. If adopted, this EO wouldn’t just “prevent” future transfers, it would also recall previous shipments of pertinent military gear, too. This is a big deal.

How it would work

Johnson’s bill prohibits a bunch of items currently eligible for transfer under 1033. Prohibiting those items means police can no longer use these armaments, which means they become ‘surplus’ property, which means that they then have to be returned to DOD (per the way the statute’s written).

In short: It would recall a ton of matériel from law enforcement.

Obama’s Executive Order 13688 functioned in a similar way but it didn’t ban nearly enough items to make a difference. The language in Johnson’s bill prohibits far more, enough to make an EO based on it substantive and not just symbolic like #13688:

^The EO went into effect on 1 October 2015 (start of FY2016).

What it would ban

Plenty of ways how Johnson’s bill language goes beyond Obama’s but one is ammunition. Obama’s EO banned ammo .50 caliber and larger. That was prohibited already. Johnson’s bans all controlled (military-grade) ammunition. Over 2.2 million rounds were sent to police between 2017-18 alone.

But the main selling point for Johnson’s language is that it prohibits (and therefore recalls) all controlled firearms, vehicles, and aircraft. This is the stuff that largely comprise 1033 transfers, either in terms of value or quantity.

Prospects

There weren’t a lot of co-signers to this letter. Notable absences like Reps. Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez certainly doesn’t help our cause, either. But what matters is how big a fuss is made over this issue from here on out.

Thanks for your time,

Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)

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