BERKELEY SHOULD SUPPORT COMMUNITY PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE BY SAYING NO TO URBAN SHIELD
San Francisco, CA I Berkeleyside
Eyewitness Palestine delegate Mohamed Shehk, with two other authors, has published a piece in Berkeleyside in lieu of tonight’s Berkeley City Council meeting and vote on withdrawal from Urban Shield.
What is Urban Shield? It is “a militarized SWAT training program and weapons expo that takes place annually in the Bay Area. The program involves 48 hours of war games trainings, and an expo featuring nearly 80 weapons vendors. Urban Shield operates on regional, national, and international levels, is funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and was implemented by Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern in 2007.”
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“In 2015, five of the six million dollar pot of DHS funding went to Urban Shield, whereas zero dollars went to areas like ‘Emergency Planning and Community Preparedness’ or 'Medical and Public Health.’ Urban Shield is sucking up money that could be going elsewhere.”
For more information, read the article at the link below.