First off, if you haven’t read 6th Congressional district candidate Seth Moulton’s live chat right here on BMG, read it now. Moulton answered a lot of questions, and was almost startlingly forthright in many of his answers. Clearly, the guy’s a rookie. 😉 (Note to the humor-impaired: that last line was a joke.)
Among Moulton’s clearest statements on controversial issues was this:
The situation in Ferguson last month is the clearest example of the huge problems a militarized police force present to our communities. We should not be providing military-grade equipment to civilian police, especially if they are not properly trained.
That, to my knowledge, is the strongest statement any candidate for any office in Massachusetts (and maybe beyond) has made on that issue. I, for one, wholeheartedly welcome it. And it is particularly powerful coming from someone who actually knows a thing or two about military weaponry. To refresh your recollection,
Seth joined the Marine Corps in 2001. Although Seth was firmly against the Iraq War, Seth served his country and led his platoon — eventually serving four tours of duty in Iraq over five years. Seth led an infantry platoon during the 2003 invasion and was in the first Marine company to enter Baghdad. Later, he worked to establish an independent Iraqi media. The following year, Seth returned to Iraq as an infantry platoon commander and fought in the lead company in the Battle of Najaf. At the request of then-Lieutenant General David Petraeus, Seth remained in Iraq and joined a small team of Marines working closely with Iraqi security forces and served as a liaison to senior Iraqi leaders south of Baghdad.
Indeed, some of the strongest voices against what happened in Ferguson have come from military veterans highly critical of the way military equipment was deployed there. I would be delighted if we could send one such voice to Congress this fall.
