The Pentagon Is Stocking Vermont With Tools of War

Orange County has fewer than 30,000 residents, more miles of snowmobile trails than paved roads and only one stoplight. In Chelsea, the county seat, a courthouse bell chimes every time a jury reaches a verdict. Cellphone reception is notoriously unreliable. It is among the most tranquil places in a state that ranks 50th nationally in per capita violent crime. And yet, the local sheriff has told the U.S. Department of Defense that Orange County is a key front in the war on drugs. "There is a high demand for drugs among local residents. We have seen primarily usage of marijuana, opiates and various prescription pill forms," Orange County Sheriff Bill Bohnyak wrote in an application for military gear this year. "This has led to a gross increase in the amount of burglary and theft calls. Many of them involved firearms, whether used in the crime or stolen."

In response to its request, Bohnyak's department received two Humvees, four assault rifles, scopes, night-vision goggles and other crime-fighting gear. And the Orange County bounty is not anomalous. In the past 17 years, law-enforcement agencies across Vermont — from the state police to village departments to the fish and game department — have quietly amassed an arsenal from the Pentagon's surplus equipment program.

Together, Vermont agencies have acquired 158 assault rifles, 14 military Humvees, and scores of scopes, sights and other equipment. They have requested, but been denied, more than twice as much stuff. The national distribution of military equipment left over from America's foreign wars and domestic stockpiles, known as the 1033 Program, received little scrutiny until last summer, when a young black man was gunned down by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., and the ensuing protest turned violent. Officers showed up in body armor and brandished sniper rifles, armored vehicles and other gear more commonly seen in overseas conflicts than on U.S. streets.

Angry confrontations with police were repeated there this week after a grand jury did not indict the shooter, leading to fires, tear gas and unrest. To better understand why Vermont departments are seeking free firepower and heavy equipment, Seven Days obtained nearly 4,000 pages of records from the Vermont National Guard, the agency tasked with implementing the 1033 Program over the past 17 years.

Read more at: http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/the-pentagon-is-stocking-vermont-with-tools-of-war/Content?oid=2478709


"It's an arms race," said Allen Gilbert, director of the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "When you have more powerful and precise tools, there's a chance they will be used in ways that are not consistent with traditional methods that law enforcement has used for years. When you start equipping the police with military weapons, they begin to act more like the army than like beat cops," Gilbert said.