On Tuesday, 18-year-old Shaquielle Olmeda was arrested in Manatee County. According to the Bradenton Herald, police "used patrol units, dogs and helicopters to set up a perimeter" and eventually apprehended and arrested Olmeda.
What crime did Olmeda allegedly perpetuate that required such a massive police response? The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office announced that Olmeda was arrested on charges of stealing a $4 pack of cigarettes.
Gross overreaction by police officers to minor misdeeds is not a rare phenomenon. In fact, it is a growing national trend.Now more than ever before, police are using expensive, military-grade equipment as part of their normal arsenal. This is largely a result of the Department of Defense Excess Property Program.
The program "provides surplus DoD military equipment to state and local civilian law enforcement agencies for use in counter-narcotics and counterterrorism operations, and to enhance officer safety." One of the most notorious pieces of equipment distributed by the Excess Property Program is the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle — the MRAP.
Some of the recipients of the MRAP include law enforcement agencies in Justice, Illinois, — a population of 13,000 — and Madison, Indiana, — a population of 12,000. It is unclear what sort of counterterrorism or high-level, anti-drug operations would be conducted in rural Indiana. Another recipient of the MRAP through the Excess Property Program is Gainesville Police.
"If we run into an extreme situation — like the school shootings we’ve seen around the country — we’ll run up here and grab the keys. Unless you’re an armed felon, you will never see this," spokesman Officer Ben Tobias told the Gainesville Sun.
However, there are abundant instances of MRAPs and other military equipment being deployed by law enforcement in non-lethal situations. Most recently, police in riot gear armed with high-powered M4 carbines and flanked by an MRAP intimidated protesters in Ferguson, Missouri.
It is unlikely that most police departments would be as reckless as Ferguson police were in carelessly deploying this equipment in response to largely peaceful protests. However, the reality is that these police departments should not have access to military equipment in the first place.
It seems today that the default response of many law enforcement agencies is to heighten tensions through excessive shows of force. The militarization of our police through the Excess Property Program has only exacerbated this trend. In fact, a group of 125 officers recently filed a lawsuit in Seattle, claiming that laws against excessive force by law enforcement violate their constitutional rights.
The role of the police in America is to protect and serve, not to intimidate and terrorize. The gradual transformation of America’s law enforcement agencies into paramilitary groups tips the scale away from peaceful interaction and toward violence and mistrust.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 10/27/2014]
