Policing/ U.S.

Local armies? Tanks and grenade launchers to local police

Almost 13,000 agencies in all 50 states and four U.S. territories have been participating in a military “recycling” program. The share of equipment and weaponry ’gifted’ each year continues to expand. Since the early 1990s, over $5 billion worth of equipment has been transferred from the Defense Department to domestic police agencies through the ’Law Enforcement Support Office 1033’ (LESO) program. This, in addition to various other programs supposedly aimed at fighting the so-called ’War on Drugs’ and ’War on Terror’.