171–180 of 336 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you require a firearm, and you can buy a military surplus weapon which is cheaper than a new "civilian" firearm, wouldn't you?
Based on the study, it seems like the answer is "yes" for violent police departments and "no" for everyone else.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with your logic here is it makes the line between police and the military incredibly blurry to the point where police become just another type of military personnel. Maybe if you have criminal activity at the level of needing automatic weapons, then you need military intervention and not police. As many ex-military have pointed out in various forums, even in war situations rules of engagement for soldiers…
How does "protect and serve" not include removing dangerous, violent criminals from society?. To do so you need efficient weaponry and tactics that differ from conventional warfare. Does every police officer need to be equipped with such firepower? No, but police forces around the world facing these threats tend to have an intermediate (or more) group for dealing with threats that fall between petty thievery and terr…
The murder clearance rates are low, corruption seem to be persistent problem and actual police work does not actually seem to involve attacking actual super armed gangs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Based on the study, it seems like the answer is "yes" for violent police departments and "no" for everyone else.
There’s not much technical difference in “military rifles” from civilian AR15 other than military version has an extra pin and the finger groove
Data also shows African Americans to murder more than white people.
But I'm sure you have data to show that America is land of the free and equal...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Regardless, there is no need, ever, for police to have the automatic weapons, APCs, and "non-lethal" weapons they are buying from the military. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout is the catalyst for all of this. Police were heavily outgunned. The FBI would take hours to get there as FBI tactical teams are not in most cities and are not on call like normal SWAT teams are. APCs are purely defensiv…
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout is the catalyst for all of this. Police were heavily outgunned. And yet the only two people who died were the two bank robbers. It sounds like the police were able to eventually take control of the situation even while heavily outgunned. So does adding more firepower on the side of police actually provide more safety when this is an example of the worst case sc…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Plural? Like one could make sense, in a siege type situation or bank robbery in progress perhaps. The sort of event that might happen once a decade or so maybe. But how many sieges or bank robberies are they expecting to need multiple of these?!
Bank robberies used to be more common, but inflation basically took care of that https://arstechnica.com/science/2012/06/economists-demonstra...
I suppose it is easier to rob a 150k watch from an unprotected person on the street, of hold up a Chinese tourist (who often have their holiday money in cash), if you're into that sort of thing.
We should be careful to draw a causal relationship here. It might not be that getting the military equipment causes police to be more aggressive and therefore have more killings. It might instead be that the more aggressive police departments are the ones that more seek to purchase military equipment, and the more aggressive police are the ones with more killings. I tend to think that's the case. Regardless, there is…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Police in Georgia literally throw hand grenades into the cribs of sleeping babies and get away with it. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-georgia-deputy-acqui...
People conveniently leave out that it was the front door of a suspected drug dealer who had a previous weapons charge and had guards. https://www.cnn.com/2014/05/30/us/georgia-toddler-injured-st... So the suspected drug dealer was using the baby as a human shield.
> Because the suspected drug dealer, Wanis Thonetheva, had a previous weapons charge, officers were issued a "no-knock warrant" for the residence, Terrell said.
> Thonetheva, 30, was not at the home at the time of the raid, but the toddler's mother and father and their other three children were inside.
Not only was the raid unannounced, but the suspected drug dealer wasn't even home at the time.