Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) decried the militarization of police in Ferguson, Mo. in an op-ed published Thursday in Time magazine.
Though he was responding to the chaos that has broken out after the shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown by police, he warned that the scene in Missouri was the result of “a systemic problem with today’s law enforcement.”
“There is a legitimate role for the police to keep the peace, but there should be a difference between a police response and a military response,” Paul wrote.
“…Not surprisingly, big government has been at the heart of the problem. Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies—where police departments compete to acquire military gear that goes far beyond what most of Americans think of as law enforcement,” Paul continued. “This is usually done in the name of fighting the war on drugs or terrorism.”
Paul has been a champion for this cause for a long time and it’s one of the areas in which he aligns most closely with the Libertarian party.
“The militarization of our law enforcement is due to an unprecedented expansion of government power in this realm. It is one thing for federal officials to work in conjunction with local authorities to reduce or solve crime. It is quite another for them to subsidize it,” Paul wrote. “Americans must never sacrifice their liberty for an illusive and dangerous, or false, security.”
