Standing Army (Part 1)

Is a standing army really allowed in the United States?

Is the goal of the Biden administration to create a standing army to suppress and control patriotic Americans?

Apparently, the Biden Administration is expanding the 1033 program that funnels "military grade" equipment to police according to The Free Thought Project.

Is the Biden Administration really giving more stuff to the police?

The 1033 Program

Standing Army: Biden Surpasses Trump on Flow of Military Weapons to Cops by Matt Agorist on TheFreeThoughtProject.com suggests that the Biden Administration is arming the police to make a stand against anti-government forces.

The 1033 program that gives military equipment to state and local police has been around since 1995. But it was an expansion of previous programs dating back to 1943. The most visible examples are the MRAPs (mine resistant ambush protected).

credit: Omaha World Herald

The Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO) is a division of DLA Disposition Services, a subordinate command of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). It administers the 1033 program(1). They also hand out grenade launchers and full-auto firearms.

According to The Free Thought Project, the Biden administration has matched in one quarter what the Trump administration did in the last two quarters of last year when it comes to giving military stuffs to police. So does that really amount to creating a single standing army, like The Free Thought Project "article" sort of claims.

Well for one thing, "Standing Army" is really an opinion piece. For another thing, there are not strings attached for the police departments to be federalized. And as the editorial explains, the Biden administration has taken a supposed backhanded approached to the further disorganized Black Lives Matter movement: ignore BLM and arm the police more. 

Standing Arm[ies]

So back to this "standing army" thing. It's sort of a misnomer. But the further concentration of militaria in the hands of agents of the government is troubling - though it is decentralized among many government agencies. The founding fathers wanted the people to be armed on par with the military. The restriction of weapon types to government agents severely handicaps the sovereigns of our nation - the individuals.

Citizens are faced with growing armies on the state and local level. For example, the NYPD can mobilize 36,000 to quell an uprising or suppress other freedom activities. The NYPD is armed with service pistols, body armor, shotguns, select-fire Armalite-Rifle-based rifles, HK MP5 submachine guns, sniper rifles, helicopters, and MRAPs. For a population diminishing well below 8 million that still doesn't seem like much. But it is the ability to concentrate power that is oh so troubling.

On a more decentralized level, even with small police departments, they are able to call on surrounding small agencies, state police, and even the national and state guards. Again, the individual doesn't stand much of a chance, especially when you factor in the weight of statutory law in many states and localities. 

[TO BE CONTINUED]

(1) "Law Enforcement Support Office," Wikipedia.com