The 1033 Monthly #2

“Surplus military equipment for law enforcement? They don’t need that,” U.S. President Joe Biden proclaimed in July 2020, at the height of rebellions that took place in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Yet, despite that acknowledgement, Biden has failed to sign an executive order the White House prepared at the start of his term that would have limited the 1033 program. And despite calls from activists and members within his own party to limit or end the program, Biden has chosen to remain silent. 

We must remember the first raid SWAT teams executed in the late 1960s against Black revolutionaries of the Black Panther Party in Los Angeles, which led to a number of violent encounters with party members. From the start, police militarization has always been about bloodshed and violence regardless of “criminal” evidence, or lack thereof. The so-called “War on Drugs” in the late 1980s was used to legitimize the need for a 1033 program, which was later revitalized in the late 1990s under the guise of “counterterrorism.” Both of these reasons have been used to brutalize, incarcerate, and kill poor and working-class African/Black and other colonized people. It is our duty as working-class Africans to oppose this war the police have brought to our doorsteps and demand an end to a program that largely terrorizes our communities and feeds mass incarceration. 

In solidarity,
Rhamier & Noah
1033 leads in the Black Alliance for Peace’s Research & Political Education Team

New Documents Show Pentagon Rubber-Stamping Police Requests for Military Gear, The Huffington Post

• The Huffington Post has exclusively received documents that law enforcement agencies sent to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in 2017 and 2018 requesting armored vehicles. The most popular of these vehicles is the MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle. MRAPs were designed to protect U.S. troops in Afghanistan from IED explosions. Police often use these vehicles on U.S. streets to carry out search warrants, crack down on social justice protests and deliver civil lawsuits. The “you never know” logic is often deployed in these requests, which shows how broad the criteria is for requesting militarized equipment and how increasingly militarized the mindset of police has become.

• 8,000 law enforcement agencies participate in the 1033 program across the nation. 

• Law enforcement agencies in larger cities requested militarized equipment, notably MRAPs, by citing “dense urban areas,” while smaller locales claimed they needed it because their population is spread out. 

• More than 90 percent of SWAT raids in Maryland aimed at serving search warrants (based on a 2018 analysis). The same study showed SWAT teams neither reduce crime nor improve officer safety.

• Law enforcement in Corsicana, Texas even went as far as to specifically ask for armored vehicles to police its poorer citizens. 

• “Safety equipment” is the catch-all term that pigs use in lieu of “military equipment” or “militarized equipment” that we advise people to look for 

Joe Biden Could Easily Recall the Billions in Military Equipment Police Received From the Pentagon, Jacobin Magazine

• Although congressional legislation is required to completely abolish the 1033 program, Biden could have reinstated Obama-era plans to return 126 tracked military vehicles and 138 grenade launchers by issuing an executive order.

• Biden has not signed the order, nor spoken since being inaugurated about taking any steps to limit the 1033 program, which he had spoken directly in favor of during the summer of 2020.

• The provisions within the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that detail some restrictions in police militarization have stalled because the legislation has yet to make it through the U.S. Senate.

Additional Stories

• Local Police Forces Continue to Buy Military-Grade Equipment

• Ending the 1033 Program:  How Local Communities Can Take Military Weaponry Out of the Hands of Police 

Learn more about BAP’s work on the 1033 program by visiting the 1033 resources page.

Banner photo: The scene at protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after the killing of George Floyd in May 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The 1033 Monthly #1

As a part of ongoing efforts by the 1033 subcommittee on the Research & Political Education Team, we plan to share developments with the membership on a consistent basis. As an explicitly anti-imperialist and anti-colonial organization, we know the same tactics and equipment used to attack our brothers, sisters and siblings abroad are the same used in our own communities. Through the 1033 program, military-grade weapons, stun grenades and other tactical gear is able to be transferred from the U.S. armed forces and into the hands of state and local law enforcement groups. As an organization that is campaigning to end the 1033 program, we believe it necessary to share ongoing developments about 1033 as a means to continue to inform our members of how this program’s efforts are developing. Starting from this Friday, we will be sending out a monthly newsletter breaking down some of the key news stories and updates surrounding the 1033 program. We hope this can help inform the membership of both how the program operates, but also, how it is taking shape in our respective communities. We will highlight two major developments, followed by a list of a few other stories separated by topics related to 1033. In this one, we highlight stories such as, BLM petitioning to end the 1033 program and the on-going advocacy efforts for the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act. We look forward to the ways the membership can use this information and incorporate it into organizing.

In solidarity,
Noah, Rhamier & Jordi
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free

Black Lives Matter Global Network announces petition to end the 1033 Program, Black Lives Matter Global Network

• BLM GN published a statement on April 20th, 2021, advocating to end the 1033 Program

• They framed the statement around the slogan of “demilitarizing our neighborhoods”

• Like other work with BLM GN, it’s merely a call to action with no real context or specific points as to why ending 1033 is their policy plan, nor does it actually explain how they hope to organize around this issue

Continued advocacy for the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2021, The Nation

• Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia and lawyer Yasmine Taeb’s piece in The Nation calls for support of the new Democrat legislation

• This bill calls for limitations of the 1033 program but does not outright abolish the program itself

• This opinion article lays out the recent efforts in the past year, including those calling for the end of 1033. However, they still stress the importance of the bipartisan support on this legislation

Federal Militarization of Law Enforcement Must End, ACLU

• Since its inception in 1996, nearly 10,000 jurisdictions have received more than $7 billion of equipment. More than half of that was transferred in the last decade.

• Due to slowing demobilization of war efforts, the quantity of military transfers to police departments have slowed. However, this has done little to keep military equipment out of the hands of law enforcement.

• Despite Obama’s Executive Order 13688, which supposedly banned the Department of Defense (DoD) from transferring highly militarized equipment to law enforcement agencies, generalized descriptions of military equipment allowed law enforcement to circumvent this order through paperwork and new equipment from the military. The total number of militarized equipment recalled due to E.O. 13688 was less than a tenth of one percent of equipment in circulation.

• There is no data that supports the propaganda the government puts forth that the 1033 program “reduces crime rate” or “reduces complaints against police officers”.

• The Law Enforcement Supply Office, or LESO, publishes quarterly updates of 1033 equipment since 2014 which can be found here

Additional Stories

• It’s Past Time To End The Federal Militarization of Police

• War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Police(download 98-page ACLU report circa 2014 for reference)

Learn more about the 1033 program by visiting BAP’s 1033 resources page.

Banner photo: Police in riot gear mobilize during a standoff with protesters rallying for slain teenager Michael Brown on Monday in Ferguson, Missouri. (Charlie Riedel/AP)