[FRIAM] fodder if Kevan joins again

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Police with lots of military gear kill civilians more often than less-militarized officers
https://theconversation.com/police-with-lots-of-military-gear-kill-civilians-more-often-than-less-militarized-officers-141421

Here's the SMMRY:
https://smmry.com/https://theconversation.com/police-with-lots-of-military-gear-kill-civilians-more-often-than-less-militarized-officers-141421#&SM_LENGTH=10
> Police departments that get more equipment from the military kill more civilians than departments that get less military gear.
> 
> The military was shrinking, while police were feeling overwhelmed fighting the drug war.
> 
> Militarization of police doesn't reduce crime or improve officer safety - but it does make civilians less trusting of the police, with good reason.
> 
> In our study, my coauthors and I found that the police agencies who received the most military gear had, in the year after getting the equipment, a rate of civilian killings more than double that of police departments that had received the least amount of military equipment through the 1033 Program.
> 
> Federal records of how much military gear has actually been given to local police are inconsistent, poorly maintained and sometimes missing altogether.
> 
> While the 1033 Program is the most significant source of military gear for police in general, it is not the only source of military equipment for police: There are other similar federal and state grant programs, and many big-city police departments have massive equipment budgets of their own with which they can purchase military-grade hardware.
> 
> To justify the costs, and help defray them, police often use the gear to serve search warrants targeting drug crimes.
> 
> As a result, supposedly free weapons and vehicles can lead some police to use aggressive deployment strategies that make civilian casualties more likely.
> 
> These increasingly aggressive deployment strategies of militarized police disproportionately harm communities of color, for instance in Maryland, where SWAT raids consistently target majority-Black neighborhoods.
> 
> While police often claim that militarized gear is a necessity in order to prepare for "Worst-case scenarios," there is ample evidence that receiving agencies use military gear in inappropriate situations.



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