buffalo Loc: Texas

Those who sincerely want to get “weapons of war” off American streets should forget about sporting rifles like the AR-15. Instead focus on the increasing militarization of the police. As noted at Moonbattery.com sponsor Ammo.com,

Just as when “all you’ve got is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail” American police are becoming more willing to use their heavy-duty, military-grade hardware when carrying out law enforcement tasks. … Between 1998 and 2014, the dollar value of military hardware sent to police departments skyrocketed from $9.4 million to $796.8 million.

One alarming aspect of the militarization of the police is that extravagant weaponry is often funded by unconstitutional civil asset forfeiture.

Another is that it accelerates the t***sformation of the police from peace officers to law enforcement officers. The latter are more likely to robotically enforce the law even at the expense of community safety. When this gets out of control, it can lead to disasters like Waco, Ruby Ridge, and the building that was bombed by the police in Philadelphia in 1985.

Militarization of the police tends to diminish civil liberties. It increases government surveillance, excessive force, alienation of the police from those policed, lack of oversight, and the k*****g of dogs.

There were reasons for the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which strictly limits the use of the military for law enforcement. However, there are also reasons for militarizing the police. These include the well-armed organized crime resulting from Prohibition and the War on Drugs, and the terrorism associated with Islam and moonbattery (e.g., the Black Panthers, Weather Underground). Note that Big Government sometimes militarizes the police to address problems that are caused or exacerbated by Big Government.

Read the whole piece:

http://ammo.com/articles/police-militarization-weapons-of-war-darpa-surveillance

old marine Loc: America home of the brave

Each county in the United States has local police, county Sheriff's Department and State police. They also need a special swat unit to handle extream situations.

moldyoldy

I am not disagreeing with you, but you also have to look at what they face now. Since every crook has access to those easily modified AR 15s or automatic hand guns with large clips. The police are in overk**l mode, scared of everybody. I think the prevalence of guns is driving this, also the money made by gun makers who tell the cops that they must have this protection.

buffalo Loc: Texas

Like Waco, Ruby Ridge, etc? Or, what is an "extreme" situation in your opinion? Knocking down someone's door to search for drugs and then k*****g the family's little dog and finding nothing? Or the no-knock break into a home in Atlanta and tossing of a flashbang grenade into the crib of a sleeping infant to serve a warrant on a suspected relative (WHO WAS NOT THERE!) for a 50$ drug sale? Is that extreme enough? The police are here to protect and serve, not violate American citizens' rights and terroristic wage war on them. Or, like in May of 1985, the infamous MOVE bombing, in which police fired 10,000 rounds of ammunition into a row house on the 6200 block of Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. The police then dropped military-grade explosives on the house, burning an entire city block (61 homes) to the ground k*****g 12 people, including 5 CHILDREN? Was that an "extreme" enough situation you allude to calling for that kind of "extreme" and unnecessary force?

In a police state where the militarized police become like an army, they need an enemy and all to often it turns out to be us.

Lonewolf

Police should have access to any military equipment that the average citizen can legally have and nothing more, tanks artillery rockets armed drones off the table.

buffalo Loc: Texas

IT IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THAT IS MILITARIZING POLICE FORCES ALL ACROSS AMERICA! What the hell does a rural county with a total population of 35,000+/- need with a gddamn armored personnel carrier? I have seen with my own eyes the busting of a 17 year old for 2 ounces of pot while driving his father's Hummer. He was not a local. The police confiscated the Hummer and the next time it was seen it was painted black and white with police emblems on the side and a light bar on top. Is this the kind of force and police tactics that people want? BULLS**T!

Ricktloml

It is a conundrum. Police need weapons equal to the real criminals they are tasked to protect citizens from. But then it seems like EVERY call might require more and more force. It's hard to blame the police. they want to go home to their families every night, (and they should.) But every day citizens have a Constitutional right to expect respect, especially since most people are not criminals, and shouldn't be treated as such. More and more it seems the bad determines how authorities deal with the good, and good people shouldn't end up being the ones who have to pay for other's bad behavior.

buffalo Loc: Texas

Hence the FIGHT by law enforcement, the private, for profit corporate prisons and their puppet politicans to keep drug possession illegal and ever more stiffer prison sentences. That is the only way they have of justifying their militarization and existence.

Private, for profit corporate prisons, like motels, are not built to set empty. Privatizing the profits while the taxpayers pick up the expense.

Smedley_buzkill

If these easily modified AR15's, or automatic hand guns with large clips are so easily modified and available, why aren't more of them used in crimes? The fact is that AR-15's are NOT "easily modified," and there are no more than a handful of "automatic handguns" available to the public. I don't know of a single clip fed "automatic handgun" in existence.
You claim that every crook has access to these weapons, but as usual, you don't offer a single, solitary shred of proof. I think you are a five-headed alien reptilian shape-shifter and my claim is just as valid as yours because it is just as believable and I offered just as much proof as you.
You are practicing typical Liberal tactics.... repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it to be the t***h.
However, I digress. There are some police units who have a legitimate need for some of these weapons and some who do not.
Military fighting vehicles can get in and out of places an ambulance cannot, for instance. I have seen this happen in blizzard conditions.
Military vehicles used on emergency calls because the weather/road conditions were too bad for a civilian ambulance. While instances of criminals using "easily modified AR-15's" (LOL) are quite rare, they do happen every once in a while. Gangs in cities are sometimes well armed. Not well trained but well armed.

old marine Loc: America home of the brave

Your post about Ruby Ridge was a screwup. That was not a legal arrest operation, it looked to me like a planned murder operation.

I was discussing city, county, state police and a swat team. That operates according to the law.

old marine Loc: America home of the brave

I agree. That law is over used.

The original intent was to sieze drug cartel property and money.

moldyoldy

I thought that I could have an exchange of ideas with a sensible person, and then you show up.

old marine Loc: America home of the brave

Very true.

Smedley_buzkill

I take it your idea of sensible is someone who agrees with your lies and misrepresentations? When someone posts prevarications like easily modified AR-15's and automatic handguns that criminals can easily access, do you think "sensible" means agreeing with obvious falsehoods?

buffalo Loc: Texas

Tossing a flashbang grenade into an infants crib is operating according to the law? Firing 10,000 rounds into a tack home and then setting it on fire by bombing it resulting in the deaths of 12 innocent people, 5 of them children and burning down of 61 homes is operating according to the law? Does it matter which branch of law enforcement uses excessive and unnecessary deadly force resulting in the deaths of innocent people.

Did the busting of a 17 year old kid with 2 ounces of pot justify the confiscation of his father's brand new Hummer and turning it into a police vehicle? Did that make the citizens of that county any safer from the dangers of a 17 year old with a little pot in his possession?