Eric Holder Announces Justice Department Plan to Target Racial Profiling

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14. All of the above, and of course, state legislatures and local leaders and legislators.

However, the issue of the militarization of the police is very different from racial profiling and similar matters, and there could definitely be more done on the federal level for the former.

Local police forces are able to cheaply procure old military hardware through incentive programs from the Dept. of Defense. These programs exist through both congressional action and executive oversight. Obama, through the federal executive apparatus, could limit some of these military equipment transfers and sales, although certainly not all.

The problem with executive action, however, is political since that these programs are very popular with the general populace, the police and their unions, local and state authorities, large industrial and military employers (and their union workforce), the DOD and Congress. Any major executive action will have significant political blow-back for the president and Democrats, federal, state and local. A recent attempt to curtail the programs also just failed in Congress, and is unlikely to receive a better reception once the Republicans take full control.

I would additionally note that the burning buildings and rioting in Ferguson and elsewhere did not help the cause of building support among the general population for reducing the militarization of police forces.