Police use military equipment in our neighborhoods, but is it really necessary?

On April 15th, an MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle), accompanied by helicopters overhead, stormed into Seaside, Monterey and Marina with a SWAT team – all to arrest three suspects. These attack-to-kill troops were local peace officers armed to assault and kill enemy soldiers hiding in armored defensive positions. The MRAP is specifically designed to protect soldiers from IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices) in combat zones.

Only this was in Seaside, Monterey and Marina.

The militarization of American police has taken place through the 1033 program, created by the National Defense Authorization Act, to transfer excess military equipment (we have lots of it) to civilian law enforcement agencies. As of 2014, 8,000 local law enforcement agencies participated in this program that has to date transferred $5.1 billion in military hardware. Del Rey Oaks, Salinas and the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office are three recipients of these combat vehicles. Hundreds of recipient agencies in our country have been raiding people’s homes, often the wrong homes in the middle of the night, to search for drugs. Some police have brutalized citizens, some of whom have needlessly died during these raids.

Homes have been set on fire or destroyed and pets have been shot. Communities have been reduced to violent protests. So why does our smallest town, Del Rey Oaks, have the biggest police force per capita, a SWAT team and it’s very own MRAP? And why is it, in conjunction with our county sheriffs, conducting drug raids with all of these excessive arms and equipment in our communities?

No doubt they rounded up three likely “bad guys” that morning. But did they think they needed that much protection? Evidently so, since spectators have overheard them calling suspects the enemy. What will they need next? Hand grenades, RPG’s and tanks?

We members of Veterans For Peace believe our neighborhoods are not war zones, and that police officers should not be treating citizens like wartime enemies. We believe there is no excuse or need for using such weapons in everyday policing to fight the wasteful and failed drug war, which has unfairly targeted people of color. This unnecessary overkill can result in counter-productive community retaliation.

I support and respect those among us who support and defend, and am a proud graduate of the former “Monterey Citizen’s Police Academy,” where we learned the value of neighborhood policing. Cops making friends and knowing their neighborhoods means cops getting out of their cars, walking beats, riding bicycles and talking to people. It’s not this militarization of our local police. Supporting and defending – not military assaulting – is being a respected part of our community.

Dr. Phillip Butler, CDR, USN (ret.) is a former Navy pilot and a former Vietnam prisoner of war. He served as national chair of Veterans For Peace and is co-founder and current president of VFP chapter 46, Monterey Peninsula.