|
John,
Militarization feeds into much more of the world around us than we realize, from police on the streets to immigration policy to the climate crisis crashing down around us. In order to stop it, we need to trace its roots. In week two of our collaboration with United We Dream, we connect wars abroad with militarization right here at home.
Check out our second set of graphics on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook this week, and share these resources in your networks!
The United States is the single biggest military spender in the world. If we count domestic forms of militarization like Homeland Security, prisons, and law enforcement, the militarized budget amounts to $887.8 billion—almost ⅔ of U.S. federal discretionary spending in 2019.
Massive militarized spending not only has disastrous consequences abroad, but also contributes to militarization at home. Since 1990, the Department of Defense has transferred more than $7 billion worth of military equipment to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies around the country through what is known as the 1033 Program.
Militarized policing disproportionately targets Black, brown, Indigenous, and working class communities. For undocumented immigrants, an interaction with police doesn’t end with arrest, but detention at an ICE jail and the possibility of deportation.
Visit unitedwedream.org/defundhate for more information and resources. This is your chance to learn more about the UndocuBlack network, get involved in the #DefundHate campaign, stop the 1033 program, and more. Stay tuned—we’ll be adding more graphics and resources to the site each week.
Follow along throughout the month of September, and help us spread the word to #DefundHate and #DefundMilitarism!
In solidarity,
Lorah, Ashik, Lindsay, and the NPP team at IPS
|
