Our communities are not war zones 28AUG14

 
THE militarization of our community police departments must end. Our villages, towns, counties, and cities do not need tanks and armored vehicles, they need more police better trained in community policing and paid a salary due public servants charged with serving and protecting. With police forces trained to protect us from crime while respecting our civil rights and civil liberties, and community policies that actually address the root causes of crime (neglect of communities by all levels of government, economic inequality, education inequality, racism and discrimination) the people will have a partner in their police departments to keep our communities safe and not one acting like they have license to detain, maim, shoot and kill a la the Third World. Please sign this petition from the ACLU calling on the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice to stop funding and supplying the militarization of our community police departments....

Tell the DOD, DHS and DOJ: Our communities are not war zones It’s not too late to add your name. Over 44,000 ACLU supporters have signed our petition demanding that the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice stop funneling billions into the militarization of state and local police forces — will you join them? Two weeks after Mike Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri, the tanks have left the streets, and there are fewer cover stories in the media. But the problem still remains: too many neighborhoods – particularly those inhabited by black and brown people – are being policed like war zones. It’s time to tell the feds to stop funding the siege on communities of color. Sign today to add your name calling for an end to the militarization of local police. President Obama gets that there is a serious problem here. On Saturday, he announced a review of federal programs that fund wartime arsenals for local police forces. “There is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement, and we don’t want those lines blurred,” he stated. Those lines were definitely blurred in Ferguson. Peaceful protesters were met by snipers, tanks, and tear gas. Let’s ramp up the pressure and tell the DoJ, DoD, and DHS: We’re tired of being treated like the enemy by those who are supposed to protect and serve us. Send a clear message to the feds: our towns don’t need tanks. The ACLU has been on the ground in Ferguson from the beginning. We filed two Missouri Sunshine lawsuits to obtain incident reports for the shooting from Ferguson and St. Louis county police departments, secured an agreement for the public and media to document police actions, filed a civil rights complaint when protestors faced arrest if they stopped moving, and helped organize legal observers to document First Amendment violations. But our work is not over. Sign now. Thank you for taking action, Anthony Romero for the ACLU Action team