COSMIC CARNIVAL – Kasey Davis performs under black lights at Sitka Cirque studio Wednesday night as she rehearses for the weekend’s Cosmic Carnival shows. The shows are a production of Friends of the Circus Arts in collaboration with the Sitka Cirque studio. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Senate Rejects Limit On Military Gear for Police
By Sentinel Staff
The U.S. Senate Tuesday voted down a bipartisan amendment to a defense authorization bill co-sponsored by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski that would limit the transfer of surplus military-grade equipment to local law enforcement agencies across the country.
The amendment failed on a 51-49 vote, nine votes shy of the 60 votes needed to pass under Senate rules.
The amendment would have placed limitations on the Department of Defense 1033 program, which authorizes the federal transfer of military equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies. Murkowski and one other Republican senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, joined Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Kamala Harris of California as co-sponsors of the bill.
The amendment would have prohibited the transfer of military equipment – including tear gas, armor-piercing firearms and ammunition, bayonets, grenade launchers and grenades, combat tracked vehicles, and drones – to law enforcement agencies. It would have applied to offensive equipment and wouldn’t have prohibited the transfer of defensive equipment, such as body armor.
“One of the policies I examined closely while the Senate was discussing police reform legislation was the ‘1033’ program, which permits the Department of Defense to sell certain items to local law enforcement,” Murkowski said in a news release the day before the vote. “Nobody I spoke with thought a police department needed things like grenade launchers, armored drones, or bayonets. Police should be there to serve the community, and there is no need for military-grade combat equipment to be on the streets of our cities in order to do that. This policy change will restrict some sales, while continuing to allow the ones that make sense.”
By coincidence the vote came at a time of national debate about the deployment of combat-uniformed federal employees at civilian protests protests in U.S. cities.
Alaska’s other senator, Dan Sullivan, was among the 49 Republicans voting against the measure. Besides Murkowski and Paul, only Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado broke ranks with the Senate’s Republican majority to vote for the amendment.
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20 YEARS AGO
April 2004
The 7th Annual Honoring Women dinner will feature Roberta Sue Kitka, ANS Camp 4; Rose MacIntyre, U.S. Coast Guard Spouses and Women’s Association; Christine McLeod Pate, SAFV; Marta Ryman, Soroptimists; and Mary Sarvela (in memoriam), Sitka Woman’s Club.
50 YEARS AGO
April 1974
Eighth-graders Joanna Hearn and Gwen Marshall and sixth-graders Annabelle Korthals, Jennifer Lewis and Marianne Mulder have straight A’s (4.00) for the third quarter at Blatchley Junior High.
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