The 355 Congresscreeps who voted to continue Program 1033 (through which the military buys war-weapons at full retail, then gives them away free to local cops) accepted 73 percent more campaign donations from defense industry sources than the opposition.
More than 8,000 feds/state/local and tribal forces have armed up since the program started in the 1990s.
In June, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) introduced an amendment to de-fund aspects of the program. Grayson's bill would have exempted certain military equipment, including planes and armored cars, from Program 1033. That effort failed; just 62 members of the House of Representatives voted for the measure, with 355 voting no. Maybe the outcome shouldn't have been a surprise: According to a new analysis of campaign finance data, the politicians who voted against Grayson's bill received, on average, 73 percent more campaign donations from defense industry sources from 2011 through 2013 than their peers who voted for it.The analysis—conducted by the Berkeley-based research group MapLight using data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics—also found that of 59 representatives who received more than $100,000 from the defense industry from 2011 through 2013, all but three voted against the amendment.
How the Defense Industry Convinced Congress to Militarize Local Cops
[Alex Park/Mother Jones]
