Equipping police and local sheriff's departments in remote rural areas to go to war

For thirteen years I owned a business in Durango, Colorado, one of the nation's most scenic spots. Prior to owning the business, I was the Director of Human Services there and in its high country neighbor, San Juan County. So anytime Durango is in the news, it gets my attention. This week the Denver Post has a column by Jonathan Thompson about the militarization of rural police departments, including Durango's.

What is crime like in Durango? I chuckled at Thompson's research into a recent week's crime blotter

which included reports of: an irate bicyclist on a street corner, an intoxicated man face down in a planter at a Thai restaurant, a landlord harassing a tenant for painting her wall, and a man with a white chihuahua who needed help. Oh, and then there was the bear that broke into a car and stole some trail mix.

And yet, over the past several years, La Plata County’s law enforcement agencies have received over 5,000 battlefield-tested items from the Department of Defense, including (but certainly not limited to): at least 100 bayonet knives, three ordnance- and explosive-disposal robots, 18 5.56 mm rifles (M16s), five 7.62 mm rifles (M14s), 15 .45 caliber pistols, 30 bipods for machine guns, four night vision sniper scopes, two exercise bikes and a Cat-1 MaxxPro Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MRAP).

Thompson understands why the cops want armor:

That law enforcement officers are afraid is understandable. The sale of assault rifles and ammunition has escalated in recent years, meaning there are more, increasingly deadly weapons out there that could be used against cops. And as the Cliven Bundy debacle in Nevada demonstrated, some members of the public are perfectly willing to wield those weapons to stop law enforcement from doing their jobs. No wonder the cops want armor.

After reviewing the weaponry gained by rural law enforcement agencies throughout the west, Thompson concludes:

I understand the need for law enforcement agencies to protect their own. If the Pentagon’s giving this stuff away, why not take it? Because if they have it, they may be tempted to use it. Besides, there’s something wrong with local cops and deputies decking themselves out as if they are fighting insurgents in the dusty streets of Kandahar. It sends out a disturbing message, that your neighborhood cop is not a keeper of the peace and enforcer of the laws, but that he is a soldier in a war.

Read more here.

GOP Senator Rand Paul is the only candidate I know who is decrying this militarization of law enforcement. What do you think?