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Heavy Metal: Why Ferguson has conservatives challenging military-style police
FoxNews.com ^ | August 19, 2014 | Howard Kurtz

Posted on 08/19/2014 5:28:07 AM PDT by Biggirl

The images of police in riot gear armed with heavy weaponry and tanks has at times become the alarming backdrop for the Ferguson story, with pictures that television can’t resist.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: conservatives; libertarian; libtardians; military; police
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To: armydawg505

So, no matter what they say they need, you will agree to it?


61 posted on 08/19/2014 7:27:10 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: ifinnegan

Yet you still can’t cite a single thing I said that isn’t true. Why can’t you?


62 posted on 08/19/2014 7:28:01 AM PDT by SeeSharp
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To: SeeSharp

That is true.

If the equipment is “free” from Uncle Sucker, state and elected officials typically do not oppose their respective law enforcement agencies obtaining it - even though the taxpayers are then stuck with the O&M costs.


63 posted on 08/19/2014 7:30:24 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: SeeSharp; ifinnegan
This is what you don't believe?

The money and the equipment isn't coming from local governments. Police can partly fund themselves now through civil asset forfeiture. And the fedgov is passing out equipment to local law enforcement without the consent of local government.

_________________________________________________

Let me ask you. Both of you. Do you favor asset forfeitures? There's no doubt that it happens. Happens every day. Even iffenegan must admit that.

I suspect he is taking issue at the fact it happens. Why he appears to deny it... who knows?

 

64 posted on 08/19/2014 7:30:32 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: livius
These are coordinated, frequently involving the hiding if weapons parts in advance (to be assembled by the rioters)...

Are you saying the rioters in Ferguson knew in advance that a white police officer was going to kill a black teenager?

65 posted on 08/19/2014 7:31:29 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: SeeSharp
And the fedgov is passing out equipment to local law enforcement without the consent of local government.

Is an overt lie.

66 posted on 08/19/2014 7:31:33 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: WayneS
Sorry... "...state and local elected officials..."
67 posted on 08/19/2014 7:33:41 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: ifinnegan

~snort~

Oooh. A technicality!

You win. See Sharp is a liar.

l0l


68 posted on 08/19/2014 7:35:38 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: Mister Da
Every bomb & rock thrower, every looter should be arrested. If that takes an MRAP to do so, fine. The fire bomb throwers in particular, should be shot on sight.

Ah, but there is the rub eh? They haven't been using this hardware to stop the looters. The only thing that has been a deterrent are those small business owners who have armed themselves . The police, have been driving by the looting. You see, it would be dangerous for them to get involved, and "officer safety" is paramount. They'd rather shake down motorists for having a tail light out, as there is little to no personal danger in that.

69 posted on 08/19/2014 7:37:05 AM PDT by zeugma (Islam: The Antidote for civilization)
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To: Responsibility2nd; ifinnegan
Civil asset forfeiture gives the cops the ability to partly fund their own operations outside of local government control. And no, the local governments can't usually just fire law enforcement officials. Many police chiefs and virtually all sheriffs are elected. The real power over the executive branch has always been the power of the purse.

And I haven't even touched the question of due process.

70 posted on 08/19/2014 7:37:56 AM PDT by SeeSharp
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To: cizinec
No they don't. That is the job of the National Guard, not peace officers.

Wow, now that's stupid worth being proud of. Police shouldn't be militarized when we can use actual military. LOL
71 posted on 08/19/2014 7:39:16 AM PDT by cripplecreek ("Moderates" are lying manipulative bottom feeding scum.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Propagandists use facts and half or distorted truths.

They also overtly lie.

You perhaps are one of them or purposely play dumb.

But police can do nothing local government does not allow them to do.

I will call out propagandists who try to inject their twisted psychopathology in to serious issues and cause fear, paranoia and hatred.

These are the lowest of the low who use serious issues in this way to further their own dark and sordid, greedy agendas.

These are on par with the cynics of the Obama regime or other leftist groups such as are at work now using the Ferguson events.

These may try to slap a coat of right wing or conservative paint on it to fool people, but it is the same spirit and comes from the same place as the anarchists, Communists, racialists, and other anti-God groups and philosophies.


72 posted on 08/19/2014 7:41:40 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: Responsibility2nd; ifinnegan
But police can do nothing local government does not allow them to do.

Even when they can fund themselves? Even when they are getting legal cover and encouragement from the feds? Even when their leadership have their own independent constituencies?

73 posted on 08/19/2014 7:47:48 AM PDT by SeeSharp
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To: Biggirl

Importantly, while liberals and conservatives are now both opposing paramilitarized police, they are doing so for very different reasons.

Liberals want the police to stop arresting criminals, even violent ones. Liberals do not want them arrested or put in prison, especially if they are black.

Conservatives, on the other hand, want law and order, but do not want paramilitary police to do so, because the interest there is not law and order, but using violence to politically control the public.

Importantly, those columnists and commentators coming out to defend the idea of paramilitarized police neglect the obvious: if we need or want paramilitarized police, then why not get rid of the police altogether, and replace them with soldiers?

If we don’t need the US Army acting as police 99.9999% of the time, we don’t need a paramilitary police doing so, either.


74 posted on 08/19/2014 8:00:52 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: WayneS
If the argument is that the problem is the over-militarization of the police and NOT the growing militarization of gangs and thugs, then we are in for some major hurt. I don't hear Rand Paul and his drones address this growing crisis.
75 posted on 08/19/2014 8:08:50 AM PDT by lormand (Inside every liberal is a dung slinging monkey)
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To: WayneS

yes, she is at least 42 and probably 43.

She is a seasoned moonbat that sometimes has brief episodes of sanity. One such episode involved a revelation that her insurance had been cancelled. Since she was really unemployed, she is more or less a free lancer, she was forced to endure the agony of signing up for Obamacare. At 42 she was in trouble without insurance. She vociferously voiced her disgust with Obama.

That was October or November . By the first of the year or so she apparently got a job with USA Today. I guessed but don’t know for certain, such a job came with insurance unlike the Daily Beast that did not


76 posted on 08/19/2014 8:28:12 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: Biggirl
If I were POTUS....I would not send any funds to any state, municpality, county, etc until there were ONLY 55 SWAT teams in the nation. It would go like this:

There is ONE, and only one SWAT team per state, trained, funded, and equipped by the State Police in that state.

There would be FIVE, and only 5, Federal SWAT teams.

Definition of SWAT: any unit that uses any military style gear and/or uses Title 2 Firearms.

Everyone else is disarmed of Title 2 weapons (but can retain Title 1 firearms (pistols, revolvers, semi-auto ONLY shotguns and rifles) under 18 USC)).

The five (5) federal SWAT teams would be the following, and never exceeding 100 members each:

1) DOJ USSS-Presidential Protection Units
2) DOJ USMS-Fugitive Recovery Task Force
3) DOJ FBI HRT
4) DOS DSS-Diplomatic protection 5) a) DOE NNSA OST-Protection of Nuclear Materials b) DOE NEST-Counter assault unit to recapture/disarm nuclear weapons.

Yes you read it correctly...no more MP5s or M4s, flashbangs, SBSs/SBRs, suppressors for ATF, DEA, DOJ, EPA, IRS, USPS, BLS, BIA, Capitol Police, CBP, DHS, etc. All Title 2 firearms are Form 4'd to FFLs for distribution to the public (that is until I can get NFA/GCA/FOPA repealed).

Title 2 firearms should be owned by CITIZENS, and a very limited number of Federal agencies.

Oh yeah, and repeal 18 USC 922(o)...or heck...Chapter 4 of GCA for starters.

77 posted on 08/19/2014 8:37:13 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (No realli, moose bytes can be quite nasti!!)
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To: Biggirl
This is hardly the first time that the issue has come up with conservatives, and anyone who does not believe that is free to check the FR archives. It goes back a long, long way.

The Ferguson incidents have served not to shed light on the issue but to conflate individual crimes with broad civil unrest. Should National Guard personnel ride APCs into a riot scene? Yes, I believe they should. Should SWAT teams armed with automatic weapons show up to intimidate a rancher whose cattle have gone astray? No, I do not believe they should. There's a rather wide spectrum there, and an honest discussion should recognize that approval of the one end does not constitute approval of the other.

78 posted on 08/19/2014 9:01:53 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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>> police in riot gear

Camo riot gear, CIA surplus?


79 posted on 08/19/2014 9:08:02 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: SeeSharp; cripplecreek

>> CC: Rather than taking the issue up with the people who approve it in state county and local governments they throw meaningless tantrums at police themselves.

Correct

>> SS: The money and the equipment isn’t coming from local governments. Police can partly fund themselves now through civil asset forfeiture.

Correct, but state and local policy should limit.

It shouldn’t be a surprise if the LEOs secretly enjoyed utilizing their new militarized tools. That said, it doesn’t make sense to point fingers at the individual officer. It’s all about policy.


80 posted on 08/19/2014 9:14:53 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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