Petition: A Call For the Removal of Military Weapons From the Stratford Connecticut Police Force

"We will no longer accept a state that makes war on its own people"

-Nelson Mandela

The time has come for the citizens of Stratford, Connecticut, along with each town and municipality in the United States, to take a stand and say a resounding "No" to the militarization of our police force. We are a town of 50,000 citizens. We have learned that our police, dedicated to "protect and serve" obtained two M-14 assault rifles, and 22 M-16 assault rifles in 2010, as well as an armored truck in 2009. (http://bit.ly/Y24j1B)

High powered assault rifles such as these have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan by trained military personnel. Many of the weapons received by the small police forces throughout the US are coming directly from the Pentagon through the 1033 Weapons Transfer Program. Since this program began over $4 billion worth of military equipment has been distributed to local police departments throughout the US. This program was suspended in 2012 when some states lost track of these lethal, high powered weapons. The program was re-started in 2013. In the wake of recent events in Ferguson, Missouri there have been calls for a federal review and suspension of the Weapons Transfer Program. This is a goal, but we propose that we do not need the military, high powered weapons that we already have. Can we envision a day, in Stratford, when our police may need these weapons against our own citizens? Even if we consider this a possibility, can we not consider that it is even a stronger possibility that such weapons may be, perhaps in the future, misused against us, or our children?

We have no animosity or grievance against the Stratford police force today just as, for some, in Furguson before the events in early August 2014. None of us can know tomorrow, but we cannot allow the lessons of Missouri to be ignored. It is far too easy for tensions within a situation to escalate, and when there is availability of high powered military weaponry, coupled with fear, it is far too easy for otherwise good judgment to lapse.

We live in this town, work, and raise our families here, together. We must never look to each other as enemy combatants, and we must insist on a present - and a future - in which our police force hold this to be true as well. We must stand together and tell our leaders: We do not want a militarized police force. We do not want high powered assault rifles to ever be pointed at or around our citizens. Please tell our leaders that a town in which such military force is an option is not a people we choose to be.