Of course the police union lobbied for more.
They have armored trucks and undercover vehicles. They have mobile towers to survey. They have closed circuit cameras at every major intersection. They have Stingrays. They have purchased LRADs which can permanently deafen. They have helicopters, tear gas cannons for hundreds of officers, batons.
And they trot it out for peaceful protests. The police did not come equipped to protect, they came equipped to escalate and occupy.
Hell, they even manage to bust a lot of the equipment out at concerts and festivals. I stopped going to a local outdoor concert series when they decided to gate a park off and start pat downs and metal detecting everyone who entered.
It was Big Truck Day at the library and a lot of government employees were showing their vehicles. Fire trucks, trash compactors, a huge bulldozer, and there was a police car and a handful of officers around.
A little girl came and pointed at a rifle and asked the officer, “what is this for?”
He said, “to protect myself”, paused and caught his breath and said “and to protect you”.
This happened a couple years ago. I still think about his pause, the afterthought on why he needs the truck, the rifle and the gear.
"What's the point of having all this cool shit if we never get to use it?!"
I don't particularly care what the standard is for disposing of unwanted military hardware is so long as it's not a double one. A civilian police force should get no special treatment above any other civilian entity.
https://www.vulture.com/2017/11/marvel-punisher-police-milit...
I don't see why it's not clear there's a difference here, in terms of community interest, but whatever
> A civilian police force should have no special rights above any other civilian entity.
What a weird way of looking at the world. I've genuinely never heard this take. Police have power over you, if you break the law; that's the point, no?
What always confuses me (I live in a country where the police don't generally get guns, even) is what they're preparing for with this sort of thing? A full-on war? Like, if they need hundreds of assault rifles for police work, then arguably society has already collapsed and the police are probably surplus to requirements anyway.
Would love to see this happen. Being policed by literal pigs would be better than...well, you know.
The bellicose see war everywhere...
That's interesting, and betrays the fact that modern policing has somewhat drifted away from its historic tradition. (https://www.techuk.org/insights/opinions/item/15744-behind-p...)
I'm pretty sure you're talking about Buffalo, NY.[1] They purchased 115 semi-automatic rifles that use the same .40S&W ammunition as their pistols. That's the opposite of "high powered". And they're not fully automatic. They can in no way be construed as assault rifles.
The 450 vests they bought are resistant to rifle rounds. Their old vests could only stop pistol rounds.
I agree that many departments go overboard, but this doesn't seem like an instance of that.
1. https://buffalonews.com/2017/03/07/buffalo-police-to-get-new...
Agreed, the NFA needs to go and every citizen should be able to purchase military surplus.
The rifles used by everyday police are the same as those owned by tens of millions of civilians. These weapons are cosmetically similar to those used by the military, but they have the same functionality and fire the same cartridge as the Ruger Mini-14.[1] They are semi-automatic. Every "bang!" requires a pull of the trigger. The reasons police have these weapons are because pistols are less accurate, have shorter range, and are unable to penetrate body armor. These rifles are usually locked in the back of the vehicle and only brought out for standoff situations, or if the cop has retreated due to being outgunned. Such occasions are rare, but when they happen, those rifles are worth their weight in gold (as are the fire extinguishers and medical kits in practically all police cars).
Moreover, police have always used the latest weaponry. A century ago, they were equipped with the Thompson submachine gun[2] and the Browning Automatic Rifle[3] (both of which are fully automatic weapons).
I agree that police have gotten more militarized over time, and I would love to roll that back, but it's also true that many of those arguing in this thread are either misled or disingenuous. We're much more likely to convince others if we make sure our arguments and our facts are unimpeachable.
1. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ruger_Mini-14.jpg
2. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thompsonad1sm.jpg
3. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Firearms_practice,_1...
We're talking about them paying for military surplus like vehicles, machineguns and other items that 95% of departments don't need.
If the DoD weren't spreading surplus Army gear out like candy to babies who don't know how to use it, there would be a lot fewer opportunities for the not so stable elements of police departments to escalate otherwise normal situations just so they can play with big boy toys/get that "underfire" adrenaline hit again/get that power trip high that they craved from high school/soothe that sociopathic itch to dominate others.
We can put our voices together and force the DoD to stop this bullshit surplus program and acjnowledge that they built and bought too much and get egg on their faces as they destroy old gear and vehicles.
Starts at home.
When local departments get their acquisitions tightened down, then we start pressuring governors to turn the state police back into officers instead of National Guard reserve.
Starts at home.
