All across America, local police forces are using military equipment like tear gas, drones, armored vehicles, and live ammunition to attack people who are peacefully and legally protesting against police brutality. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) is introducing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that will ban the sale of military equipment to local police, protecting the public from further abuse by law enforcement officials. Contact Congress now and demand that your lawmakers stop militarizing local police.

Militarized police are more violent

Section 1033 of the National Defense Authorization Act allows local law enforcement agencies to obtain billions of dollars worth of guns, explosives, helicopters, and more from the military. Why do police need these military-grade grenade launchers, bayonets, and large-caliber weapons? They don’t.

Studies show that equipping police officers with military equipment does nothing to reduce crime or protect law enforcement officers from violence. In fact, police forces that use military equipment are more likely to kill civilians than police forces that have not been militarized. It’s likely that militarized police forces stoke fear among the public, which increases the potential for more conflict.

Militarized police forces often target black and minority-majority communities, where getting killed by the police is already among the leading causes of death. Equipping police officers with weapons of war has led to a war within our communities, and the list of casualties is growing longer every day. In March, it was Breonna Taylor. In April, it was Mike Ramos. In May, it was George Floyd. How many more names must be added to the list before we put an end to this deadly policy?

We can stop police militarization

Senator Brian Schatz has announced that he will introduce an important amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that will prevent the transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies.

This amendment can pass into law, but only if more members of Congress support it. Contact your Senators and Representatives now and tell them to support the Schatz amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.