Comforting--"U.S. Police Departments Say They Are 'Losing' Tons of Military Weapons"

[Jackpine Radical]

Police departments across the Unites States have been losing large amounts of military gear including assault rifles, shotguns, handguns and even Humvees provided under a controversial Pentagon program.

The “1033 program,” which is now under White House review in the wake of the police response to riots in Ferguson, Missouri, has provided surplus military gear to police departments across the country in the aftermath of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The departments themselves, however, haven’t been keeping very good track of it.

Fusion reports 184 state and local departments have been suspended from the program for misplacing M14, M15 and M16 assault rifles, .45-caliber pistols, shotguns and two Humvees. It’s unclear whether the weapons, which were provided to assist police in the “wars on terrorism and drugs,” have been unintentionally lost or sold on the black market.

“[The program] is obviously very sloppy, and it’s another reason that Congress needs to revisit this promptly,” CATO Institute project on criminal justice director Tim Lynch told Fusion. “We don’t know where these weapons are going, whether they are really lost, or whether there is corruption involved.”

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/25574-us-police-departments-say-they-are-losing-tons-of-military-weapons

But those HumVees are no doubt painted camo. They're probably just sitting in the back parking lot & nobody can see them.

[merrily]

1. Losing? Not selling? Hmmm

[edhopper]

3. There is a small percentage of police

who are also white militia. I'd look there.

[Cirque du So-What]

6. My thoughts exactly

White supremacists, neo-nazis, various & sundry RW groups, you name it.

[TheKentuckian]

21. No, the police are a right wing militia. No small part about it as it is total including

minority and women members of the Blue Gang.

[underpants]

9. Any decent inventory + procurement/asset disposal system would stop this

First thing I thought of too- someone is selling these OR the officers are taking them (see militia post below). There is no way an armory just loses weapons.

[KurtNYC]

11. this police chief infamously used some government guns in his "libtard" rant videos

our tax dollars at work...

[merrily]

25. As Jon Stewart might say, "He seems nice."

[Blue_Tires]

2. Oh, I have no doubt a lot of "toys" vanished to the black market

especially when local governments were trying to survive the economic downturn...

[logosoco]

4. So these departments are not responsible enough to keep track of this gear,

which would really be handy for a crazy person to get a hold of, but they are responsible enough to make decisions on whether someone lives or dies, or gets the crap beat out of them.

I see a problem here, but I guess they don't.

[malthaussen]

5. Maybe they should check the homes of their officers.

Somehow, I have a feeling that a lot of "cool" stuff winds up in Officer Friendly's garage.

-- Mal

[eppur_se_muova]

7. How long before drug cartels end up with those MRAPs and APCs ?

Seriously, there's an obvious black market there. Expect the first one to "disappear" anytime now.

[jwirr]

10. That is what I was thinking was happening to them.

[VanGoghRocks]

8. Oh, shit, you really cannot make this shit up! I do think you might want to use

quote marks around the word 'losing'. But aside from that, thanks for posting!

[underpants]

12. True story - Ft. Knox 1990

During basic someone showed to "stand to" without his M16. FT. KNOX SHUT DOWN. no one in or out until it is found. The Army wives, we heard later, were pissed they couldn't get to commissary.

All hands on deck. My unit was part of the search party. A GI in another platoon was walking down a dirt road and a Sgt stopped, "Why aren't walking through that mud puddle?!" Sure enough there was an M16 in the mud puddle. Problem was - it wasn't the one they were looking for. At some point one went missing and the armor didn't report it. They eventually found the other one too.

Our Drill Sgt.s couldn't help but laugh "Well, someone's retirement plans are going to change"

[truedelphi]

13. Oh an ddon't forget the lil mentioned fact that when teh Police Depts utilize

The SWAT tanks and the MRAPs, they' re tearing up the roads, which simply were not built to have those monsters driving around on them.

[L0oniX]

14. ...because pigs lose shit all the time.

[GeorgeGist]

18. Why insult pigs?

[Taitertots]

15. The first rule of inventory control: lost/misplaced = stolen/sold

Every incident should be considered misconduct and the people responsible for inventory control should be fired/ investigated for theft.

[Fred Sanders]

16. I am sure the massive amounts of arms America ships overseas to everywhere is far more secure.

Any mention of arming anyone is propaganda without mentioning America is by far the No. 1 supplier of military equipment to the blood thirsty world.

USA! USA!

[riqster]

17. Fuck me running, a useful report from Goddamned CATO?

The apocalypse is nigh.

[packman]

19. I saw ISIS laying mines along the interstate

Now you're telling me the local cops don't have the mine clearing truck they were promised or the assault rifles to beat them back with? Chaos, fire from heaven, cats mating with dogs, women wearing pants, aliens probing ---- what will we do? WHAT will we do?

"Fusion reports 184 state and local departments have been suspended from the program for misplacing M14, M15 and M16 assault rifles, .45-caliber pistols, shotguns and two Humvees. "

Here's a clue - check the local Flea Markets for the missing shit.

[hifiguy]

20. How in the name of the Invisible Pink Unicorn

do you MISPLACE a goddam HUMVEE??

Wanna bet that reichwing fringe groups and white-supremacists are getting their mitts on these?

[Jackpine Radical]

23. Wiell--like I said in the OP,

maybe they have really good camo jobs and nobody can find them in the parking lot.

[hifiguy]

24. Could be, I suppose.

Lots of cops are pretty dim bulbs.

[MisterP]

22. that's what happened to Central America after 1982: Contras sold arms to everyone, the US just left

arms with its friendly militaries, soon enough it's saturated

[Historic NY]

26. Stuff not properly vetted and then sold.....somebody had to sign for it.

my local pd dept got stuff in the past...couple pickup trucks. They couldn't get rid of them for 3-4 yrs. They were pretty much junk except for one truck used mostly in the winter. I see they got a couple Hummer's which the local high school shop repainted a solid color , lets see how long the become a rust spot. Usually they just give it to one of the other town depts to used until its useless.