Contact the Seattle City Council and ask them to de-militarize the SPD:

Dear (insert council member),

In light of the recent tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri, I am calling on you to draft and introduce legislation to remove all military grade weaponry from the Seattle Police Department.
Automatic weapons, armored personnel carriers, tanks, etc. are of no use in effective community policing. They're designed for warfare, nothing else. Their availability to the police sends a message to both the police and the community that the citizenry is to be viewed as an enemy to be defeated. This serves neither the community nor the police, and creates division and distrust. Deployment of these weapons by local police forces is always for the purpose of suppressing dissent, and their use constitutes a violation of every citizens constitutional rights.

Thank you,
(. )

Thanks again, George Bush.

When you're behind enough armor and firepower to level the city, that apparently requires you to claim that you're acting with "an incredible amount of restraint," as St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar did this morning.

Shorter Belmar: "We've got enough firepower to level this entire town & take out every single person in it. The fact we haven't - yet - is proof of our 'incredible restraint'."

Rand Paul: We Must Demilitarize the Police

"Not surprisingly, big government has been at the heart of the problem. Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies—where police departments compete to acquire military gear that goes far beyond what most of Americans think of as law enforcement."

"Anyone who thinks race does not skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention, Sen. Rand Paul writes for TIME, amid violence in Ferguson, Mo. over the police shooting death of Michael Brown." http://time.com/#3111474/rand-paul-fergu…

You know the US Military get's a fair amount of shit - mostly for being put in the impossible position of carrying out insane foreign policy with all the wrong tools and for all the wrong reasons - but I'm going to step up and agree with the 'Veterans on Ferguson' and defend the US military.

The cops in Ferguson are racist chicken hawk bullies essentially playing SEAL Team 6 cosplay on unarmed civilians.

In contrast our military is far more reasoned, professional, and for the most part even compassionate, than these goobers.

And if you can't get behind that - well how about this - the US military at least is up against ARMED adversaries.

I think Adam Weinstein nailed it here:

http://gawker.com/dont-call-the-police-m…

Does anybody have good data on the amount and value of military equipment dispersed to law enforcement agencies in Washington? If any? I'm looking for real data, not anecdotes or "I saw" descriptions.

Quiz Question: How many cities in America can you name where the police enter some districts only in (quazi-militarized) convoy?

I'm fine with the military giving surplus gear to police departments, but those donations need to come with a requirement that the beneficiary police department draw up a set of rules outlining when it is appropriate and permissible to use heavy-duty equipment. Military-grade body armor is one thing, but APCs should only be used by civilian forces in times of severe upheaval (I'm talking gang warfare kinds of crises).

This really is mass murder waiting to happen.

@9 - Totes disagree with you. If it gets to that level, call in the people with actual training, the National Guard. Don't give cops APC's, LRADs, or military-grade anything. It's not their job to to "fight a small war" on the city streets.

Whatever happened to "Peace Officer"? Who actually attempt to increase the peace and DEescalate conflict. They are now 'War Officers'... trained to escalate and control and see citizens as an enemy force.

not good.

...democracy...slippping... a..wa.y.....

@7, RDPence wrote, "Does anybody have good data on the amount and value of military equipment dispersed to law enforcement agencies in Washington?"

ACLU of Washington investigated equipment inventory of various area law enforcement agencies and found a significant amount of what I suspect most of us would consider "military equipment."

I intend to file records requests with various agencies soon. I would like to devise language a bit more broad than that in this request made recently of the St. Louis. County Police Department, which included 1) "roster/inventory of all requests to the Pentagon's Program 1033. If a roster is not available, please provide copies of all applications." 2) "roster/inventory of all items received from the 1033 program."

Any suggestions?

Thank you, Pol Pot! Great idea! That was so easy to copy and paste to Seattle City Council. I put attention, Tim Burgess. This is the email address for anyone that wants to send your letter. council@seattle.gov

Contact the Seattle City Council and ask them to de-militarize the SPD:

Dear (insert council member),

In light of the recent tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri, I am calling on you to draft and introduce legislation to remove all military grade weaponry from the Seattle Police Department.
Automatic weapons, armored personnel carriers, tanks, etc. are of no use in effective community policing. They're designed for warfare, nothing else. Their availability to the police sends a message to both the police and the community that the citizenry is to be viewed as an enemy to be defeated. This serves neither the community nor the police, and creates division and distrust. Deployment of these weapons by local police forces is always for the purpose of suppressing dissent, and their use constitutes a violation of every citizens constitutional rights.

Thank you,
(. )

I have made this statement before; If you want to play soldier, join the Army.

When the Public Servants start to act as if they are Masters, its time to clip their wings.

When they started to use the SWAT teams to deliver warrants, they acknowledged that they no longer had need for the team.

Crime rates are falling, and the majority of police being injured, is at the hands of repeat felons. Keep the offenders in longer, and you'll have fewer problems.

the kid was murdered by a sidearm by a cop driving a sedan. that's common sense equipment in the USA, where everyone may drive and everyone may keep them thangs.

this problem is deep. it is not a problem dependent on recent abnormalities