Missouri Police Open Fire on Unarmed Protesters: Tell the Department of Defense to Stop Militarizing Local Police

Action Alert!

Around the country, people are watching in horror as police in Ferguson, Missouri assault people holding a vigil with rubber bullets and tear gas. This nationwide trend of military-style police is being supplied by the Pentagon.

According to eyewitnesses, when 18-year-old Mike Brown was approached by police he threw his hands up and yelled “I don’t have a gun! Stop shooting!”

But the officer didn’t stop shooting. Mike Brown was shot to death by a yet-to-be-named police officer. His body lay on the street for four hours before officials finally took it away.

Instead of accepting responsibility, police defended themselves, calling the event an “altercation.” Then, when the community in Ferguson, Missouri responded to the tragedy by holding a vigil and protest, police monitored them with rooftop snipers, assaulted them with tear gas, and hit them with rubber bullets.

This military-style assault and murder of innocent civilians is becoming a new trend in police forces across the country. It’s disturbing and shameful — and it’s supplied by the Pentagon.

Using a federal program called 1033, the Department of Defense distributes hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of military equipment to local police departments. The chilling motto for this program is “From Warfighter to Crimefighter.”

Police forces should be protecting us. Instead, from the shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson to the choking death of Eric Garner in New York, police forces are assaulting and killing innocent people with no accountability. This is unacceptable.

By militarizing police across the country through the 1033 program, the Pentagon is encouraging local police forces to feel as if they are going into battle — with the public as a clear enemy.

This national militarization of police must be stopped immediately. Sign the petition to demand that the Department of Defense dissolve the 1033 program and hold all police officers involved in brutality accountable.