{"id":53338,"date":"2020-05-17T07:54:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T12:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53338"},"modified":"2020-05-17T07:54:43","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T12:54:43","slug":"federal-government-buys-riot-gear-increases-security-funding-citing-coronavirus-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53338","title":{"rendered":"Federal Government Buys Riot Gear, Increases Security Funding, Citing Coronavirus Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"SACRAMENTO,CACHP<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Officers wearing riot gear line the edge of the California state capitol grounds after removing protesters on May 1, 2020.\u00a0Photo: Carolyn Cole\/Los Angeles Times\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BUYS RIOT GEAR, INCREASES SECURITY FUNDING, CITING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

THE FEDERAL government has ramped up security and police-related spending in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including issuing contracts for riot gear, disclosures show. The orders were expedited under a special authorization \u201cin response to Covid-19 outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purchase orders include requests<\/a> for disposable cuffs, gas masks, ballistic helmets, and riot gloves, along with law enforcement protective equipment<\/a> for federal police assigned to protect Veterans Affairs facilities. The orders were expedited under a special authorization \u201cin response to Covid-19 outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Veterans Affairs department, which manages nearly 1,500 health care care facilities around the country, has also extended\u00a0special contracts<\/a>\u00a0for coronavirus-related\u00a0security services<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redcon Solutions Group, a private security company founded by Iraq War veterans, has won over $1.6 million<\/a> in contracts to provide guards for \u201cCovid-19 screening security guard services.\u201d Similar contracts have gone out to private security firms to guard VA facilities in San Francisco<\/a>, Des Moines<\/a>, and Fayetteville<\/a>, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increased security contracts appeared shortly after a recent Inspector General report noted <\/a>an increase in absenteeism among VA employees and shortages among VA police. The IG report noted that there is \u201cadditional strain caused by the need for additional police presence for COVID-19-related screenings\u201d of veterans at all VA health facilities and recommended the hiring of contract security services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VA police, as The Intercept\u00a0previously reported<\/a>, was not armed until 2011, when the Pentagon began providing military equipment to police forces around the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Officers wearing riot gear line the edge of the California state capitol grounds after removing protesters on May 1, 2020.\u00a0Photo: Carolyn Cole\/Los Angeles Times\/Getty Images FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BUYS RIOT GEAR, INCREASES SECURITY FUNDING, CITING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC THE FEDERAL government has ramped up security and police-related spending in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including issuing contracts for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28947,11587,11825,5567,827,843],"class_list":["post-53338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-coronavirus-pandemic","tag-lee-fang","tag-riot-gear","tag-the-intercept","tag-united-states","tag-us-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53339,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53338\/revisions\/53339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}