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<br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">"Charles Chamberlain, Democracy for America" <<a href="mailto:info@democracyforamerica.com">info@democracyforamerica.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">August 15, 2014 6:17:24 AM PDT</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">"Irene Malone" <<a href="mailto:irenelsm@mcn.org">irenelsm@mcn.org</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>JUSTICE in #Ferguson for Mike Brown: It's time to demilitarize the police</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Reply-To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="mailto:info@democracyforamerica.com">info@democracyforamerica.com</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; "><a href="http://act.democracyforamerica.com/sign/demilitarizethepolice/?t=1&akid=5140.2420166.mHJjs3"><img src="cid:F28CFA41-A6C8-4CB1-8FDA-7E7D8A1B27B9@dsl.dynamic.sonic.net"></a></p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; ">Irene --<br><br>Sniper rifles aimed at protesters. Armored vehicles that look like tanks. Police dressed like storm troopers.<br><br>It looks like Baghdad. But it's not. It's America.<br><br>It's a town of 20,000 people in the Heartland.<br><br><strong>The images from Ferguson, Missouri, are shocking.</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In an outrageous overreaction to the protests that have erupted demanding answers and accountability in the police killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, police responded by shooting tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades at children, nonviolent protesters and reporters.<br><br>When Huffington Post reporter Ryan J. Reilly was unfairly arrested by police on Wednesday, he said that "the police resembled soldiers more than officers."<br><br>This isn't "protect and serve." It's an occupying army. And these military tactics and weapons used by police have escalated tensions and made Ferguson less safe.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>Even moderate Democrats like Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill are calling on police to demilitarize to help calm the situation.</strong><br><br>This problem isn't unique to Ferguson.<br><br><strong>Chances are that your own police department already has militarized itself. The Pentagon has used part of a little known law, known as Section 1033, to sell surplus weapons from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to local police.</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Instead of getting out of their cars and working with communities to tackle crime, police increasingly hide behind high tech weapons, vehicles and armor made for use on a battlefield -- not the city streets of small town America. In Ferguson, we are starkly witnessing how this limits freedom and puts law-abiding Americans' safety at risk.<br><br><a href="http://act.democracyforamerica.com/sign/demilitarizethepolice/?t=2&akid=5140.2420166.mHJjs3" target="_blank"><strong>Sen. McCaskill's comments are an excellent start. Now we need elected leaders across America to take immediate action. Join us by telling Congress to reform Section 1033 and stop the flow of military weapons and hardware to local police.</strong></a><br><br>This policy is turning every city in America into the next possible battlefield. Even worse, we've heard from several Iraq and Afghanistan veterans that the armor and weapons the police are using in Ferguson are more than they ever used overseas.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>These veterans were astonished and troubled to see American police pointing the barrel of a gun at nonviolent protesters.</strong><br><br>This is not a new trend. Military weapons and tactics have been used to quash protests against inequality and corporate power since the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999. And I still remember seeing grenades and tanks used to crush Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011. These tactics don't make anyone safer. Instead they injure innocent people, sow distrust between the public and the police, and undermine our Constitutional rights.<br><br><strong>Our country is built upon the right to speak out in protest</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>-- and we declared independence in part because of a military occupation of Boston. Military weapons and tactics have no place in our local police forces. Our officers should be partnering with the public to fight crime together rather than targeting the public with weapons previously used in overseas wars.<br><br><a href="http://act.democracyforamerica.com/sign/demilitarizethepolice/?t=3&akid=5140.2420166.mHJjs3" target="_blank"><strong>Congress needs to hear from us loud and clear: it's time to demilitarize the police in America. Sign our petition demanding Congress reform Section 1033 now.</strong></a><br><br>Thank you for taking action and standing up for a safer America.<br><br>- Charles<br><br>Charles Chamberlain, Executive Director<br>Democracy for America</p><img src="http://act.democracyforamerica.com/o.gif?akid=5140.2420166.mHJjs3"><div align="center" style="margin-top: -10px; "><a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/democracyforamericacontribute?refcode=AFG081514CC&refcode2=5140&akid=5140.2420166.mHJjs3"><img src="cid:5B006DEA-0F24-4572-ACE5-846390E37F09@dsl.dynamic.sonic.net"></a><div align="center" style="border-right-color: black; border-right-width: 1px; border-right-style: solid; padding-right: 20px; border-top-color: black; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; margin-top: 20px; padding-left: 20px; font-size: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; border-left-color: black; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; padding-top: 10px; border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; "><div align="center">Paid for by Democracy for America,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.democracyforamerica.com?akid=5140.2420166.mHJjs3" target="_blank">http://www.democracyforamerica.com/?t=4&akid=5140.2420166.mHJjs3</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and not authorized by any candidate. Contributions to Democracy for America are not deductible for federal income tax purposes.</div></div><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; "><font face="verdana" size="1" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana; ">This message was sent to <a href="mailto:irenelsm@mcn.org">irenelsm@mcn.org</a> Click here to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://act.democracyforamerica.com/cms/unsubscribe/unsubscribe/?akid=5140.2420166.mHJjs3">unsubscribe</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>from further communications.</font></p></div></span></span></blockquote></div><br></body></html>