In June of this year, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) introduced an amendment to halt the Pentagon's 1033 program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars of military-grade weapons and equipment to local police annually. The amendment overwhelmingly failed, and just seven out of 41 voting members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) supported it.
That vote has drawn controversy in the wake of this summer's protests and grotesquely militarized police response in Ferguson, Missouri. Ferguson's own congressman is Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.); he is a member of the CBC, and he voted against demilitarizing police.
Now, The New York Times reports that the CBC is campaigning on what happened in Ferguson to turn out African-American voters for 2014, an effort which would presumably be more difficult were the CBC's record on police militarization more widely known.