By: Isabella Rivera, Photographer

Giving law enforcement officers surplus military equipment started out as a clever way to save money but is now looking more like a mistake. A few officers are abusing the privilege of being able to use military supplies, which otherwise would be destroyed or warehoused.

Law enforcement militarization started with the 1990-1991 National Defense Authorization Act, which allowed law enforcement agencies to acquire excess weapons to help counter drug activities. Later, Congress made the Defense Departments 1033 program which allows law enforcement agencies to get free military equipment such as tents, office supplies, pickup trucks, ATVs, blankets, and other weapons supplies. They must only pay maintenance and delivery costs.

Sophomore Dominick Cavallaro says, “I think that the weapons should go to the police. The gear and blankets should not go to the police. They should give the blankets to the homeless.”

Protesters in Ferguson were bombarded by tear gas, rubber bullets, and heavily armed SWAT teams after the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer. After that, two California cities returned an armored vehicle because residents feared that law enforcement abuse of military equipment would occur.

Ferguson isn’t the only place where police are misusing weapons. In May, Georgia police threw a flash grenade into a house that they believed was occupied by drug suspects but turned out to be a 19-month-old’s playpen and caused him to need skin grafts.

In Ohio, a 26-year-old mother was shot while holding her 14-month old son after SWAT officers blindly broke her door down looking for her boyfriend. A 7-year old girl was killed after a SWAT team threw a flashbang grenade into a window, broke down the door, and fired one shot that ended her brief life.

AP teacher Mr. Doug Hernandez says, “I think John Oliver’s satiric take on the issue says it all: August 17, 2014 (I think). Watch it!”

While weapons can be recollected when misused, the fact is that they shouldn’t be given to people who don’t know how or when to use the devices. If training was a requirement before law enforcement received these tools that would minimize some of the unnecessary situations where innocent people are harmed.

The abuse of such powerful machines makes it safe to say that the world would be in much better hands if incompetent people didn’t have access to life threatening devices.