Essay On 1033 Program

The Failures of the 1033 Program

Anthony Gonzalez

John Jay University

October 11,2017

The issue of having military weapons in the hands of police is that it creates fear among people and a barrier that separates police from the communities. This increase leads to more criminal activity.The 1033 Program was initially created through the National Defense Authorization Act its creation was to allow the U.S department of defense to get rid of its disposable and excess military equipment to the state and federal law enforcement agencies for the use in countering drug crimes at first and become a sense of deterrence to crime itself. Then the purpose of the program was further expanded on after the Congress approved the

The 1033 program is following the failure of implementation. The 1033 Program was developed to facilitate the transfer of military equipment to the federal and Agencies to combat terrorism and drugs. "However, the increased access to military equipment has resulted in the increased misuse of the same equipment "(Delehanty et al., 2017). It's a failure of implementation Because the very officers sworn to protect us are abusing that power and with much more dangerous weapons for them to use. This increased access to military equipment that has also been linked to the increased cases of police violence and brutality. Instead of facilitating the war on terrorism and drugs, the program has breed a new type of law enforcement officers who carry out every operation in a military manner, relying on military tools and a military mindset even in situations, such as peaceful public demonstrations, that do not call for the use of excessive force. The police are needed to be a symbol to communities, that they are indeed there to protect becoming a more aggressive force does not give people that same reassurance."However, the program has been heavily criticized for militarizing law enforcement agencies that has led to increased violent conduct among law enforcers" (Kraska, 2007) Its thought that aggressive policing is what's needed to stop crime in America but its a tactic that

The program was touted as the solution to terrorism and drug trafficking but has instead resulted in the apprehension of non-offenders as well as, in some cases, the murder of nonviolent offenders. Braine (2016) says that the emergence of the Black Lives Matter Movement is an indicator to the underlying politics of oppression against the black community and Muslims. While the concept was made with good intentions it was never fully work on. The idea was that police needed to be equipped like warriors to be able to fight of the rising rates of crime. But having such weapons being used at protests and then being soon by the media to show the force being used on civilians defeats the original purpose for the equipment. The politics of race and ethnicity has pervaded the war against terror and drugs trafficking due to what Walker (2010) describes as the bait and switch approach. The serious issues of terrorism and drugs have been overshadowed from its original purpose by racism and ethnicity issues in our country. With no regard with the effect it had with public relations. Berman and Fox (2010) quote a former police chief admitting that in police agencies, they are no clear standards for defining and measuring policy success or failure. With such a revelation, it is hard to believe that federal and state law enforcement agencies are taking their time to review the program in an attempt to seal the