It has come to our attention, in information released this past week that several California school police departments, including Los Angeles Unified School Police, have received highly specialized military equipment from the U.S. Department of Defense 1033 program. Make no mistake, the equipment doled out to these school police departments are the same ‘weapons of war‘ we have witnessed utilized by police in response to social activism in the Black community in Ferguson, Mo. The recent images from Ferguson are reminiscent of a 1968 magazine cover, Law & Disorder: The Chicago Convention and Its Aftermath. Instead of a school bus and batons, which caused quite enough damage in the 60s and 70s, police are now geared up with assault rifles and armored military vehicles, ‘Mine Resistant Ambush Protected’ (MRAP) vehicles to be exact.

Read the Full Statement on the Strategy Center Website