{"id":314683,"date":"2026-04-06T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=314683"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:24:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:24:53","slug":"north-americans-are-being-policed-with-military-grade-weapons-this-has-to-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/04\/north-americans-are-being-policed-with-military-grade-weapons-this-has-to-stop\/","title":{"rendered":"North Americans Are Being Policed with Military-Grade Weapons–This Has to Stop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

\u2018It\u2019s become common to see Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, known as MRAPs, all across USA.\u2019
Photograph: The Washington Post\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Predator drones and armored personnel carriers have become commonplace in US cities. Congress has the power to fix this.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

6 Mar 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0The US<\/span>\u00a0main streets are a warzone. This should trouble every American, irrespective of their political leaning. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are near impossible to realize when our streets are policed so militarily. Our nation\u2019s founders would be outraged, so as we commemorate the 250th anniversary this year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it\u2019s worth evaluating how far off the mark we are in maintaining that much-vaunted freedom and liberty.<\/p>\n

This past year, especially, witnessed a troubling militarization of the streets, with Donald Trump\u2019s deployment of ICE and the national guard in multiple US cities, including Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. There is substantial documentation<\/a> of immigration enforcement using military-grade equipment transferred<\/a> from the Pentagon. And from Chicago to California, homeland security officers\u2019 use of flash-bang grenades<\/a>, predator drones<\/a>, and armored personnel carriers<\/a> is now commonplace. But to be clear, Americans were already seeing their streets militarized due to the Pentagon\u2019s 1033 Program<\/a>, which was created by Congress in the 1990s and provides war equipment free of charge<\/a> to America\u2019s police forces. This militarization of law enforcement is now a local, state and federal agency problem.<\/p>\n

This Pentagon giveaway to domestic law enforcement, in addition to military-grade weaponry available through DHS\u2019s terrorism grants and the US Coast Guard\u2019s excess property program, has resulted in the transfer and delivery of billions of dollars\u2019 worth of war equipment to the streets of the United States.<\/p>\n