​Protect and serve—not teargas and tank

It’s not often we find ourselves agreeing with Senator Rand Paul. But in the wake of the shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown and subsequent mishandling of protests by the Ferguson Missouri Police Department, Paul asked on national television why the federal government spent $8 million to fight terrorism by giving money to the Fargo Police Department. It’s a question many are asking in the wake of scenes from Ferguson, which looked more like war zones than an American city. Why do local law enforcement departments need military grade equipment at all, let alone to deal with protests? And what does it say about America that this is what we’ve come to? The fact that unarmed African American teens are killed in too frequent of numbers by policemen of departments that are able arm themselves like a small country’s army is shameful.

In the wake of 9/11, the federal government and the Homeland Security Department decided it was good idea to give grants to police departments to acquire this equipment to “fight terrorism.” Now we are finally wondering why. As Senator Paul pointed out, if terrorists reach Fargo, any war we are engaged in is pretty much lost. Hopefully we will begin an examination of these policies, crafted in part by a coalition of war-weary Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans in Congress.

Just this week we learned the town of Tracy, Minn., population 2,100, has an armored vehicle with a four-person police department. The idea of Barney Fife going after the town drunks in full military gear and tanks comes to mind when hearing stories like this.

Fargo and Tracy are not alone. Cities and towns all across the nation received money and equipment to do the same. It’s also one thing to use these items to fight terrorism or say a potential anthrax attack, but to use them to deal with civil unrest? Who decides what terrorism is defined as? Can they use this equipment for whenever they want, for whatever purpose? How many peaceful protests will police departments cause if they show up in full military gear, armored vehicles and assault rifles firing tear gas left and right? There’s a reason for laws, regulations and oversight over things like this because if you just let any entity go unchecked with power, they will take it to a level that many are uncomfortable with. It’s time for police departments to return to the purpose of protect and serve -- not teargas and tank.

Burgum speaks out against ND’s ban on gay marriage

We’ve pointed out in past editorials that having social policies like gay marriage bans in North Dakota is bad for state businesses, which is why we saw large employers like Microsoft and Blue Cross Blue Shield speak out against it when it was on the ballot. So it was good to see entrepreneur Doug Burgum speak out against the ban in his speech at The State of Technology event this past week. He pointed out how policies such as this can be detrimental to the state’s ability to attract employees of the best talent to work here. At a time when thousands of job are open across the state, having strict, socially conservative policies may actually harm efforts to fill those jobs. Kudos to Burgum for having the courage to say what a lot of business leaders feel but aren’t always eager to publicly speak about. As North Dakota prepares to spend loads of taxpayer dollars to defend its gay marriage ban in court as other states bans go down in flames, the effect of such bans on business should be a part of the debate.

Ice Bucket Challenge

Finally, the viral nature of the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS research initially lead some to wonder what good it’s actually doing. The actual act of filming a video of dumping ice water on someone doesn’t automatically contribute any money to research and doesn’t mean anyone will do so as a result. However, the awareness has lead to millions more dollars being donated than in previous years. So those detractors have been proven wrong. And if it’s ultimately for some good cause, maybe something purposeful going viral versus just making us laugh will be the norm instead of a rarity. In fact, our own editor Diane Miller took the challenge from Forum editor Matt Von Pinnon and you can see the result on HPR’s Facebook page.