Twin Cities Area Police Forces Loaded Up On War Surplus Under President Trump

When protests erupted in Minnesota following the death of George Floyd — the black man who died after a white Minneapolis policeman kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes — many of the law enforcement agencies from the Twin Cities metropolitan area that responded were recent beneficiaries of free excess military materiel from a Pentagon program originally meant to support counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism operations.

The public outcry that episode ignited over what many saw as the militarization of police forces prompted President Obama to sign a executive order in 2015 that authorized a recall of transferred military equipment such as tracked armored personnel carriers, grenade launchers and bayonets.

Trump's revocation enabled the 42-member police force of Cottage Grove, a fast-growing St. Paul suburb, to receive 39 bayonets in December from the Defense Logistics Agency, which administers the 1033 program.

War Vehicle Makes Local Debut At Minnesota Protest

Sgt. Brad Petersen, who supervises Cottage Grove's participation in the Pentagon program, says the chief reason his police department joined that decades-old initiative was to get a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, armored personnel carrier.

Members of the Cottage Grove police force joined other law enforcement teams in Oakdale, a St. Paul suburb, at protests outside a house owned by Derek Chauvin, the now-fired Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on Floyd's neck.

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