August 6, 2020
Good Morning, welcome to radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. Coming up today we’ll get a look at the effect dark money has on local elections and later on we’ll look at whether or not the huge amount of military gear that police and sheriff departments are getting around the country has had an impact on the violence being committed by police.
So called “dark” money, money that is untraceable to the original source is becoming a larger factor in local Florida election campaigns. Blogger, columnist and radio host Cathy Antunes has made a study of this and she’s produced an e-book about the growing influence of dark money on local elections in Sarasota and Manatee Counties. She joins us now.
Local Dark Money in Sarasota & Manatee
The Pentagon has given or sold billions of dollars worth of excess military equipment to law enforcement agencies around the country since the 1990’s. Some of that equipment included MRAP military vehicles, automatic rifles and grenade launchers. Our next guest, University of Tampa associate professor of political science, Ryan Welch co-authored a study finding that departments that received such equipment were more inclined to commit violence than other departments.
Militarization and Police Violence
