A Disturbing Map (Militarization of the Police Edition)
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, August 16, 2014
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6 comments
Via the NYT: Mapping the Spread of the Military’s Surplus Gear.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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I hope Hank Johnson’s anti-militarization bill includes cancellation of any existing maintenance and logistic support agreements.
What the heck is going on in Maricopa County, Arizona?
@DrDaveT: That sheriff dude has been hitting the surplus pile hard.
In what likely situation would county departments need grenade launchers? Any situation I can think of should entail state and/or national guard leadership.
Caught in moderation.
@DrDaveT:
The state capital is in the county, so high numbers can partly be explained due to state and local agencies located in the county and that the county has a population of 3.5 million.
I find, for example, Deschutes County and Klamath County in Oregon to be more interesting.
I’d like to have the data in a document rather than a map, so that you could add population and if the state capitol is in the county, etc. Can’t find it anywhere though, but there have been some interesting FOIA requests recently for 1033 data.