The Local Fight to Demilitarize the Police

On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new executive order lifting an Obama-era ban on the transfer of certain types of military equipment, like grenade launchers and bayonets, to local police departments. “Those restrictions went too far,” Sessions said in a speech to the Fraternal Order of Police. “We will not put superficial concerns above public safety.”

The move has elicited grave concern from civil rights groups and criminal justice experts. Not only is it unclear whether these weapons are actually effective in reducing crime and protecting officers, they argue, it’s also likely to lead to rights’ violations, worsening the already-frayed relations between law enforcement and communities of color. “Our communities are not the same as armed combatants in a war zone,”said Vanita Gupta, former head of Department of Justice’s civil rights division who now leads the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.