Editor, Index-Tribune:
Apropos of the dust-up in Ferguson, Missouri, some interesting data was obtained by the New York Times via a Freedom of Information Act request and posted on HitHub. In appears that between 2006 and 2013, Sonoma County obtained $481,520.10 in “military gear” from the Pentagon, including 89 M-16 rifles and 11 dumbbells. Presumably, county law enforcement was short of both.
As the Times article notes, “The Pentagon-to-police transfer program is not new. Congress created it during the drug war, as a way to increase police firepower in the fight against drug gangs. But since 9/11, as the Pentagon geared up to fight two wars, then drew down as those wars ended, the amount of available military surplus has ballooned.”
Two of many possible conclusions: 1) Drugs, war and terrorism are pillars of our economy, without which unemployment would skyrocket; or 2), Osama Bin Laden won.
Bob Edwards
Sonoma
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