[LegendHasIt]

WEAR THE DAMN MASK!!!! OR ELSE!!!!!

[Larry Lucido]

Not taking the click bait.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

A semi-automatic pistol is a "weapon of war." Or so Uncle Sam told me when he issued me a 1911 and then a 92FS.

The whole kerfluffle about the police spending money on surplus military equipment is a big joke. Most of it isn't weaponry even under the broadest definition, and the "tank-like vehicles" they get don't even have any weapons. They're for protection, not attack.

Oh...and the program under which the police get that gear makes it free. So they're not spending money on it anyway.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Thanks. This was a great article that was thoroughly researched with numerous links.

I'm usually not a fan of libertarian essays, but overly militarized police forces is something that both libertarians and conservatives need to oppose.

[laplata]

Wasn’t POS Obama behind the big militarization of the police?

[doorgunner69]

Any reasonable person could agree that sometimes a cop needs a machine gun

Is this some sort of sick liberal satire article?

Cops are barely proficient with the simple sidearms they are directed to carry.

[familyop]

"But the police have become so militarized that there's hardly a distinction anymore."

That's based on appearances alone. There's a lot more to a combat soldier than a rifle.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

The police aren’t using these weapons on the rioters, so what does it matter?

[Svartalfiar]

A big part of this is societal, with urban culture and the equivalent rise of the us vs them cop mentality. There’s definitely some cities / parts of cities that need a more militarized police approach. The problem is that’s a self-reinforcing cycle.

I’m not going into much detail here, but what we need to do is get cops back into the friendly neighborhood patrolman type. I bet dollars to donuts (yes, weak I know) that you could pick ANY, EVERY SINGLE ONE, police department in these US, and I bet less than 10% of their patrol force could name more than a couple of the cashiers/store owners/receptionists within their patrol area.

Dynamic entry / high-risk situations should be under the purview of the Sheriff’s department, or State troopers. There should be no SWAT teams in any police department, except MAYBE big cities like NYC, Dallas, Houston, LA, Chicago, etc, but ONLY with the permission and oversight of the Sheriff.