Leid Stories - 11/21/13

U.S. Police Departments Increasingly Going Military;

Report Skewers Detroit’s Reasons for Bankruptcy;

JP Morgan Chase: Too Big to Jail

 

America’s police departments increasingly are being militarized – thanks to a little-known Department of Defense program.

Elizabeth Beavers, a foreign policy program assistant with the Washington, D.C.-based Friends Committee on National Legislation, reveals that the program for years has been the conduit for arming police departments across the country with billions of dollars in heavy-duty, military-grade equipment commonly used for warfare.

Wall Street bankers, not city workers’ pension plans, are responsible for Detroit’s fiscal woes, says an independent report. Chad Livengood, with The Detroit News, discusses the details of the report and its possible impact on the court’s decision to green-light Detroit’s application for bankruptcy.

The Justice Department’s record $13-billion “settlement” with JP Morgan Chase on the bank’s mortgage-securities scam proves that the Obama administration refuses to take a tough stand against banksters. Leid Stories explains.