“To militarize [the police], to give them military weapons…it creates a culture. Guns and tanks and gasses that are illegal in wartime are being used. It is an atmposphere that encourages police to over-react,” Ron Paul told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC today.
As the National Guard takes up its positions in Ferguson, MO, and the situation escalates, Dr. Paul explains his opposition to the program that allowed small-town police forces across the US to be equipped with military equipment:
Police are supposed to be local people, and they’re supposed to be peace officers. They’re not supposed to be warriors.
Opponents of local police militarization are up against strong resistance in the US Congress, illustrated by the June 19 vote on an amendment Rep. Alan Grayson’s (D-FL) offered in the House to curtail the military weapons transfers. Grayson’s amendment failed to pass in US House of Representatives on June 19, receiving only 62 “yes” votes up against 355 “no” votes.
Switching gears, when asked about President Obama’s military escalation in Iraq beyond the stated goal of humanitarian rescue and protection of US personnel, Dr. Paul said of Iraq:
Just think if we had a non-interventionist policy in 1990. …It wouldn’t be a perfect country, but it wouldn’t be total chaos every bit as bad or worse than it was in 1990. …
We weren’t going in there to protect refugees on a mountain. That was just an excuse to escalate.
So what should we do now?
If it was a bad mistake to go in, why is it a bad mistake to go home?
Watch the interview here:
