Militarisation of police force faster under Biden than Trump
Ramin Mazaheri
Press TV, Chicago
While many in America are celebrating an extremely rare murder conviction for a police officer - for the killing of George Floyd - demands for police reform are only growing louder.
Police in the United States kill about 1,000 people every year, so there’s no chance the issue will go away. This month in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest but deadliest city, a 13-year old boy was killed by police even though he clearly had his hands up in surrender.
Eliminating systemic racism in law enforcement and implementing criminal justice reform is being demanded in the streets and in newspaper headlines but tax money continues to be invested in more guns and war materiel. The combined spending of America’s state and local budgets on police would rank as the world’s third-highest military expenditure.
Last year the city of Chicago received $500 million dollars in discretionary spending from the first major stimulus package. $300 million dollars was handed to the city’s Police Department instead of going to build the public health systems in communities devastated by the pandemic.
New President Joe Biden openly opposes defunding the police, but many hoped that with an executive order he would at least place limits on the transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement. That hasn’t happened: the Security Reform Policy Institute found that the flow of military gear has been faster under Biden than under Donald Trump.
The “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act” was approved by the House of Representatives in March, but it is not expected to be approved by the upper chamber Senate.
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