While press and politicos bewail the militarization of police, as seen in images from Ferguson, Missouri, showing military vehicles with mounted machine guns, conservative talk show host
Rush Limbaugh has an idea of who is to blame.
"Yeah, you've got all these guys, Obama and Eric Holder and Gov. Nixon, and they're all running around decrying the militarization of police officers. They sit there, and they decry, and they wring their hands, and they whine and moan about the militarization of the police department," Limbaugh said on his radio show Tuesday.
"And they're the ones that did it."
The Department of Defense has distributed over $4 billion in surplus military equipment to police departments around the United States, according to
The Hill.
The Obama administration could halt the program and pull back the military gear any time, Rear Adm. John Kirby told The Hill. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel "has the authority to rescind and take back equipment that is transferred to local law enforcement agencies if he deems fit. He has that authority."
"Where do you think the militarization equipment comes from for these police departments? It comes from the U.S. Department of Defense, the DOD," Limbaugh said.
"It's unused, leftover, unneeded, what have you, weapons, ammo, and other type of equipment that the Department of Defense has sent to numerous police departments all over the country, not just Ferguson.
"The Department of Defense actually donates unused equipment such as armored personnel carriers, certain kinds of weapons, ammunition, to local police departments around the country.
"I don't know how all of that is done, how it's apportioned, but it happens. And because the Pentagon is donating this equipment, the media is on a high horse now about the Pentagon is involved in Ferguson.
"You can actually see that headline: 'Pentagon Playing Role in Ferguson.' The Pentagon isn't there. The U.S. military isn't there,"
Limbaugh said on a Aug. 14 broadcast.
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