To: President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Homeland Security Secretary Johnson

Sign the petition to the feds: Stop militarizing our police

The police footage from Ferguson, Missouri looks more like Iraq than the United States, and for decades the federal government was complicit. Please cease all military equipment to state and local police departments in the country.

Why is this important?

If the photographs emerging from Ferguson, Missouri look like some foreign war zone to you, you're not alone. Plenty of former soldiers in Iraq & Afghanistan are saying the same thing.

This was no accident. The armored vehicles, assault weapons and body armor that police are wearing in Ferguson—and other state/local police across the country—come from the United States military.

Since 1996, the Department of Defense has transferred $4.3 billion in military equipment to local and state police through its 1033 program. Since 2001, the Department of Homeland Security has further militarized our police through federal funds for “terrorism prevention.”

It is time for this to stop. Sign the petition to President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Homeland Security Secretary Johnson: stop sending military equipment to local and state police.