Political MoJo

US Marines and sailors board a flight out of Afghanistan as all personnel withdraw from the region. (US Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. John Jackson)

A US Army soldier plunges into the water in his parachute during a combat water survival test. (US Army photo by Capt. Thomas Cieslak)

The current issue of the National Rifle Association's American Warrior magazine just hit, and in it, the gun lobby comes out squarely in favor of warrior cops. An article titled, "If You Were a Cop, What Would You Drive?" opens with a photo of an armored personnel carrier-style vehicle juxtaposed with a Volkswagen van. Rick Stewart, the host of the NRA's Life of Duty Patriot Profile series, wonders, "Why should SWAT teams be forced to deploy in a glorified bread-truck?" (It is unclear why a hippie bus is the other alternative.)

NRA American Warrior

The NRA has long walked a delicate line between glorifying law enforcement and fanning fears of big, tyrannical government. In 1995, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre infamously wrote of "jack-booted government thugs" and "federal agents wearing Nazi bucket helmets and black storm trooper uniforms," and he still routinely warns of imminent crackdowns on gun owners. As Stewart coyly acknowledges, "For many there is a certain Orwellian level of mistrust in government and law enforcement."

Yet the NRA is also a trade lobby for firearms manufacturers, which may explain its soft stance on the militarization of American police. As I detail in the current issue of Mother Jones, a multibillion dollar industry has sprung up to provide ever-bigger weapons and military-style equipment to law enforcement. Since 2002, the Department of Homeland Security has given local police departments $41 billion to buy new gear.

This puts the NRA in a tricky position. Ever since the Ferguson protests, people from  all political persuasions have become wary of efforts like the Pentagon's 1033 program, which has transferred $5.1 billion worth of equipment to local law enforcement. Stewart's article makes the NRA's position on 1033 clear: "The program is not evil; it is responsible." He also defends the police's use of camouflaged battle dress "for tactical advantage," especially for those who "serve on the frontline of illegal activity along our southern border." It is "unconscionable," he maintains, to make cops wear their "everyday duty uniforms" in "extremely dangerous situations"—such as protests.

The American Warrior article depicts police as victims: "Nobody seems more 'targeted' these days than those who serve in law enforcement." Not the communities where SWAT teams are routinely deployed; not people of color, who are targeted in 71 percent of of SWAT raids even though whites are more likely to be active shooters or hostage takers. The fact is police work is safer than it's been in decades. Assaults on cops are down 45 percent since their peak in 1971. Violent crime has fallen by nearly half since 1991. 

The real problem, according to the article, is not police abuse or an over-hyped need for military-like equipment, but the words we use. Terms like "armor," automatic" and "assault vehicles" are improperly used to demonize law enforcement, writes Stewart. The other issue is some Americans' tendency to criticize police abuse: "In the long run, we don't need a 'knee-jerk' reaction to every use of force situation caught on camera."

GOP Senate candidate David Perdue and his wife at a recent campaign stop

David Perdue, the Republican nominee for Senate in Georgia, has a lady problem—at least according to recent polls, which show Democrat Michelle Nunn ahead with women voters in this toss-up election.

In a Sunday night debate between Perdue and Nunn, the moderator suggested that ads about Perdue's time as the CEO of Dollar General, a discount chain, had damaged the GOPer's campaign. Shortly after Perdue stepped down as Dollar General's CEO, hundreds of female managers sued the company for pay discrimination that allegedly took place during Perdue's tenure. Nunn's campaign and EMILY's List have both aired millions of dollars' worth of negative ads describing the class-action lawsuit. The moderator urged Perdue: "Talk to those women in particular."

Here's how Perdue responded: "If you look at Dollar General as an example, there was no wrongdoing there," he said. "That lawsuit, or that claim, or that complaint was settled five years after I had left…And it was less than 2,000 people. We had upwards of 70,000 employees in that company."

An annual report Dollar General submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission puts the actual number of female managers in that class action at 2,100. As Mother Jones reported in May, the women had been paid less than their male peers between the dates of November 30, 2004 and November 30, 2007—almost exactly the dates that Perdue was CEO (from April 2003 to summer 2007.) The class action began in late 2007, and Dollar General settled the lawsuit for $18.75 million without admitting to discrimination.

"Two thousand women, that actually seems like quite a lot to me," Nunn said at the debate.