Posted on 09/23/2014 4:55:48 AM PDT by rellimpank
STEVENS POINT OK, the concern over militarization of cops is legitimate.
But as someone who has been accused of being a flaming liberal, allow me to add this question: In a country that is buried in guns, do we want the enforcers of our laws to walk around with billy clubs while criminals tote semi-automatic weapons? If the bad guys have semi-automatics, then dont we want cops to have at least that amount of firepower? Surely, we all know there are tens of thousands of semi-automatic weapons out there.
Does anyone want to see a single cop killed because he or she is outgunned in the line of duty? Cops arent perfect, as numerous news reports show us, but Ill take them any day over some of the wackos who walk the streets of our towns, big or small.
I bumped into a longtime local cop walking the beat a while back. He said he was counting the days to retirement. Times have changed, he said. Community policing in a nice term, but it bumps into harsh reality across this country every day. Almost every police call in this or any other small central Wisconsin city includes the possibility of encountering someone with a weapon, he said. People are meaner and better armed. The days of talking people down are pretty much gone, my friend said.
(Excerpt) Read more at host.madison.com ...
Has this moron author missed the militarization of all law enforcement in the US?
I think it was demonstrated in Ferguson that the police are overarmed already.
Why yes he has, he totally missed the entire point of why people object to police SWAT teams breaking down doors at 4am to serve a warrant for selling pot and accidentally shoot someone or drop a flash-bang in a baby crib.
The solution to this problem is obvious...
Bill Barry, writing from liberal Madison, thinks ALL owners of semi-auto rifles are criminally minded. “They’re just not our kind of people”.
Oh, and prior to the SWAT team flashbanging the baby in its crib, they shoot the family dog. People object to that, too.
I would rather see a single cop killed by a bad guy who outgunned him than a single citizen killed by a cop who thought “Rambo” was a documentary.
I would like him to live in rural PA. You are dead or robbed and the perp is way out of town before any response, or discovery of a crime, is made.
Urban gangs are better armed than law enforcement and have been so for many years. SWAT teams are well armed but they don’t police the streets day in and day out.
Most of the raids I have seen in PA are about cocaine or heroin dealers. Pot usually gets you fined nowadays for public smoking. But still, I would rather have the police use a graduated threat level response than assume every criminal is armed like a small army.
ok Mr. star man creator, tell me one person. just one prominent gun rights person who advocates that cops be limited to carrying billy clubs. just one
that’s STRAW man
I have NEVER seen a cop that was outgunned. In fact, cops are so well armed that when the amount of cops present increases arithmetically, their fire-power increases exponentially
Another liberal talking through his hat...
Straw man. Police walk around with very much more than billy clubs. Many police agencies have MRAPs and suppressed sniper rifles equipped with night-vision scopes. These are weapons of war, not of a police force.
The biggest ‘sin’ is they have all this ‘stuff’ and are reluctant to use it.
Seems kind of ‘bullyish’...... Like “I dare you to cross that line” or “Knock this ‘chip’ off my shoulder”.
At least when we(I) were kids when one crossed the line or knocked the pencil off the shoulder, there was a little pushing or shoving going on, maybe a punch or two, then it stopped.
They show these pictures of cops looking like a Seal Team or Force Marine Recon and STANDING AROUND while looters etal are running by.
One of the good points in the Cold War (made by the peaceniks) was ‘If we have 5000 Nukes and Russia has 2000 it just means there are 7000 more ways to destroy things’.
The amount of bombs wasn’t really the deterrent, it was the ‘will to use them’.
That ‘sweep’ in Boston last year looked more like Pattons Army rolling into Germany than a bunch of cops looking for a couple of suspects that had been on their radar for years.
Hell, didn’t the Russians point out the whole family by name and alert us to their actions?
..as someone who has been accused of being a flaming liberal correctly identified as a fascist, allow me to add this question engage in some BS agitprop: In a country that is buried in guns too free, do we want the enforcers of our laws agenda to walk around with billy clubs while criminals citizens tote semi-automatic weapons? If the bad guys average citizens have semi-automatics, then dont we want cops to have at least that amount of firepower our enforces to be far more powerful? Surely, we all know there are tens of thousands of semi-automatic weapons out there. And it terrifies us statists.
Does anyone want to see a single cop killed because he or she is outgunned in the line of duty? Not counting our leftist race baiters. Cops arent perfect, as numerous news reports show us, but Ill take them any day over some of the wackos who walk the streets of our towns, big or small an armed citizenry.
Now I don't want cops to be outgunned either, but militarization isn't about cops carrying semi-auto carbines in their patrol cars, its about tactics and heavy equipment. When SWAT teams are justified by their use in dairy farm and guitar factory raids, its clear that it has nothing to do with being outgunned.
--any amount of studies show that street gangs are "armed" primarily with older revolvers and cheap semi-auto handguns---
“Give cops the firepower to outgun the bad guys”
“....In a country that is buried in guns, do we want the enforcers of our laws to walk around with billy clubs while criminals tote semi-automatic weapons”...
That is EXACTLY what odumbo has done to our military personnel. You cannot fire on the enemy UNLESS he fires on you first. Time and time again our military people, knowing that the person carrying a weapon within ten feet of them are terrorist or militants, cannot fire at them until that same terrorist or militant fires at them. ABSURB, IDIOTIC rules put forth under odumbo’s leadership.
You cannot, will not ever win a war with your hands tied behind you back.
When/If the public decides to revolt against odumbo (I see no reason not to), he has armed them well already.
MRAPs aren’t enough?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.