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Militarization of Law Enforcement
American Cowboy Chronicles ^ | May 23, 2015 | Tom Correa

Posted on 05/25/2015 9:44:36 AM PDT by Texas Fossil

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Tom has it correct. He has both military and law enforcement background and perspective.

There is no place in US law enforcement for military equipment and tactics.

He does a good job of balancing protecting the citizens and becoming a police state.

1 posted on 05/25/2015 9:44:36 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
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To: Texas Fossil

Note, Tom also has an interesting website.

Cowboy perspective.


2 posted on 05/25/2015 9:45:47 AM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!)
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To: Texas Fossil
I've seen it in Third World countries, but not here

Yes. These are the trappings of the cheap tyrants, the tinpot dictators.

Our ancestors didn't fight the Revolution to end up being submissives in some sick dominance game that a bunch of boys with too much TV time want to engage in.

And that takes us to the other point. In the United States, the People are Sovereign. It's the central point of the legal system. Not a King, or his Aristocracy, supported by their enforcers.

We don't have to live with this. We can and should vote it out of existence.

If things get so bad that a military force is needed, then there are State militias which are authorized or use of the National Guard. If things are that bad now that the police departments claim they need to do this, then it's already past the point where they should be involved - it should be handed off to the military.

Personally I think that's true on the border. But not in the interior. Yet.

3 posted on 05/25/2015 10:06:28 AM PDT by Regulator
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To: Regulator

Obama is always a lying weasel. He does things that appear to be in country’s interest because he is drawing heat for it. Then turns around by stealth and finds another crooked way to accomplish the same.

This is the old pea under the shells game. Surely, most people see it by now. Oh, I forgot the compliant MSM Press keeps telling the Big Lie and public schools filter all of this out of the class work.


4 posted on 05/25/2015 10:17:56 AM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!)
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To: Texas Fossil
Why masked? Who knows!

Really?
For the same reason bandits wear masks.
Hide Identity

5 posted on 05/25/2015 10:26:14 AM PDT by Vinnie
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To: Texas Fossil

Your post is spot on.

From his lie about him saying he’s “bound by The Constitution” (he obviously is not) to his statement that he “cannot federalize every police force in the country, but we can work with them” (Baltimore/Freddie Gray speech)...to his “I’ve got a pen and phone” comment...lies exposed and method he’ll use to circumvent our laws.

Meanwhile....Congress is a complicit joke.


6 posted on 05/25/2015 10:34:16 AM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
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To: Texas Fossil
May I suggest all LEO wear pink?

That way, the ferals won't riot. Right?

5.56mm

7 posted on 05/25/2015 10:37:10 AM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: M Kehoe

I once thought I did not care what the police wore, but I really do not like seeing small town policemen dressed in black uniforms in Texas.

It is simply stupid. It is very hot, they are made out of micro fiber, they absorb water, but sour before they dry on their own. And they look to much like the Gestapo.

I have told our local police I’d like it better if they went back to Khaki cotton uniforms. And they would be a lot more comfortable.

Sure I want them armed, but police are NOT MILITARY nor PARA MILITARY.


8 posted on 05/25/2015 11:14:33 AM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!)
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To: Vinnie

Yep.


9 posted on 05/25/2015 11:15:26 AM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!)
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To: Jane Long

Jane, don’t get me started on Congress. Headshake


10 posted on 05/25/2015 11:16:09 AM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!)
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To: Texas Fossil

why do cops need full-auto, or bayonets, or tracked vehicles...?


11 posted on 05/25/2015 11:46:18 AM PDT by gaijin
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To: Texas Fossil


12 posted on 05/25/2015 11:51:24 AM PDT by gaijin
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To: gaijin

they don’t.

None of the above.


13 posted on 05/25/2015 11:51:37 AM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!)
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To: gaijin

the last photo was in Boston, wasn’t it?


14 posted on 05/25/2015 11:52:44 AM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!)
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To: Texas Fossil

My experience in the military and in law enforcement has been a bit different than Tom’s. I too served in the Marine Corps, where I earned a 3rd award Expert rifleman’s badge and graduated from 2nd Mar Div Scout/Sniper school.

I also attended a Law Enforcement sniper school at Camp LeJeune where the Marine Instructors treated us very well and didn’t call us ‘wanna-be’s’ or other derogatory names. At least not to our face, which I suspect any Marine worth his salt would have done if he had a problem with us.

We conducted ourselves in a professional manner and they did as well. We must have done something right because we went out drinking with them several times. Some of them even asked us about getting hired at our PD after they were discharged.

I served on my Dept. Swat team for 15 years along side USMC Vietnam Veterans and veterans of the Gulf War.

I understand the ‘militarization’ of the police is a popular topic right now and Tom is giving his opinion. He has some points that are on target but others; not so much.


15 posted on 05/25/2015 11:56:33 AM PDT by Cap'n Crunch
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To: Cap'n Crunch

The founders understood that our Constitution would only work with a moral educated honourable people. We are loosing the battle on those grounds especially in the cities.

Here is a slightly different perspective from Tom, who I like. I have been reading his site for a while.

“Police Militarization Is More Than Tanks And Rifles: It’s A Cultural Disease- It’s acclimating the citizenry to life in a police state”

http://www.westernjournalism.com/militarization-is-more-than-tanks-and-rifles-its-a-cultural-disease/

http://www.westernjournalism.com/militarization-is-more-than-tanks-and-rifles-its-a-cultural-disease/ … you will easily understand


16 posted on 05/25/2015 12:12:00 PM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!)
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To: Texas Fossil

Yup! That was Boston.


17 posted on 05/25/2015 12:25:48 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: gaijin

House to house search at gunpoint by paramilitary. And they did not find the perp.

A citizen found him.

It is much better that happens.


18 posted on 05/25/2015 12:37:13 PM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!)
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To: Texas Fossil

Bump for a very useful article. I’m sick of cops dressing and acting like thugs. Thank God we dont’t have these thugs in my local town. They exist at the county level though.

A word to all cops who wear masks. The mask makes you a target. That’s all you are.


19 posted on 05/25/2015 2:53:28 PM PDT by zeugma (Are there more nearby spiders than the sun is big?)
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To: Texas Fossil

This guy makes it sound like all cops wear camo, carry bayonets, grenade launchers and ride around masked in armored vehicles.

It’s not true. The vast majority ride around in patrol cars wearing a Sam Browne belt and a uniform.

I think you folks have got much bigger fish to fry with the state of politics in this country today. POTUS has ripped the Constitution to shreds and the spineless republican party has let him do it. On the military front Generals are bowing down to Obama’s demands to turn the military into The Bold and the Beautiful.

I agree with you that America will only work with a moral, honorable people. That battle was lost a long time ago.

Do you think the police are going to stop doing what they do because the government no longer provides them with used equipment?

The only thing they provided us with were used M16’s with worn out barrels, a few M14’s, and some binoculars.

The BDU’s I wore I bought myself. A pair of BDU pants cost about $30 bucks. A pair of my uniform pants cost double that and they aren’t made for hard use. Bayonets? Grenade launchers? We didn’t have any of that.

If need be the cops will do what they need to do in their everyday uniforms. While Zero fiddles and Rome burns.


20 posted on 05/25/2015 5:11:46 PM PDT by Cap'n Crunch
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