US gun culture has police arming to keep up

The Boston Globe ^ | August 23, 2014 | Michael A. Cohen

[2ndDivisionVet]

Over the past two weeks, Americans have been transfixed and horrified by the surreal images of police donning camouflage and gas masks and pointing sniper rifles at unarmed demonstrators in Ferguson, Mo. Why have police departments become so enamored with tools more associated with war than with walking the beat? One answer is receiving precious little attention: America’s gun culture.

America is a nation awash in firearms. It’s simply impossible to talk incisively about what’s happening in Ferguson without talking about guns and the ease with which ordinary citizens and criminals can get access to them.

Police today are much better armed because it’s the only way they can keep up with criminals. When powerful semi-automatic and military-style weapons started to appear on the streets, police departments began moving from six-shot revolvers to semi-automatic weapons. That trend accelerated after several high-profile incidents where officers were simply outgunned by criminals, the most infamous being a 1997 shoot-out at a North Hollywood bank in which the robbers were toting automatic weapons and wearing body armor.

According to David Kennedy, director at the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College, though these types of events are as rare as a “meteor strike” for most communities, police departments increasingly have come to believe that “they should have the technology ready in case one occurs.”(continued)

[faithhopecharity]

Dear Boston Globe, not sure about your building but out here in the USA, ..........” The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed...” (Incidentally, didn’t Massachusetts have something to do with getting us out from under a King that was trying to restrict our rights to keep and bear arms? Maybe they don’t teach American history up your way anymore?)

[kitchen]

They borrowed some AR-15s from a nearby gun shop.

[Ken H]

Having the arms is one thing, and a case can be made for that. But it is the indiscriminate use of them, like for serving warrants on grandma, that is the issue. It should be RARE, not ROUTINE.

Like this one =>

Shocking SWAT raid captured on helmet cam raises questions (Video)

August 15, 2014

A terrifying helmet cam video, released to the public Wednesday, depicts a SWAT team executing a search warrant on the home of a 68-year-old woman and her 18-year-old adopted daughter. The video is raising questions of privacy, reasonable force and police due diligence. They had the wrong place.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3193821/posts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEBmhAgAtR4

[MasterGunner01]

In the outlaw world, a firearm is nothing more than a tool to get the job done. If you have the right amount of cash, and you dodge a FedGov setup, you can pretty well buy whatever you want — including crew served weapons.

The typical cop shop is not well prepared to compete with today's sophisticated narco and terrorist thugs. Militarizing the SWAT units to fight the drug war was not a good idea because of the mission creep we're seeing today. If the only tool in your tool box is a hammer, then everything becomes a nail. One size fits all policing is not only wrong, but stupid beyond belief.

Using high profile SWAT units to serve warrants for unpaid parking tickets, especially when these elite units can't seem to get the right address, does not impress the citizenry. Shooting citizens' dogs isn't a great way to win friends and influence people either. If the cops think they've got a bad time with the crooks is one thing. If they alienate the citizens they are supposed to protect and serve — that is another story. If the cops want to be taking rounds from crooks AND a totally p.o.’ed citizenry, then they'd better think long and hard about the last words of General Custer at Little Big Horn: “Where did all the Indians come from?”

[BOOHA]

LET THE PO PO ARM UP...

[William Tell]

From the linked article: "Our toxic gun culture and permissive gun laws are crucial factors in the ongoing militarization of America’s police departments. "

I recently purchased a book entitled, "California Gun Laws, A guide to state and federal firearm regulations".

It's 468 pages. Not at all what I would call "permissive".

And yet I believe the crime rate in Oakland rivals that of any other liberal hell-hole. I doubt they sell many copies of this book there either. Nor do I believe that the typical criminal even has the education to understand it.

[Ray76]

Police need to keep up?

Hardly!

WE need to keep up.

Police:

">

Do you or your civilian pals have anything like that?

[vette6387]

“Nor do I believe that the typical criminal even has the education to understand it. “

Here are a couple of your “normal Amish Mensas” in a “discussion” about “time travel” which speaks to your point!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202517290999274

[Smokin' Joe]

According to David Kennedy, director at the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College, though these types of events are as rare as a “meteor strike” for most communities, police departments increasingly have come to believe that “they should have the technology ready in case one occurs.”

So it should be used as often as a "meteor strike" occurs in these communities, too.

For most communities, that means never.

Not when someone has a bench warrant for unpaid parking tickets, not when they are suspected of pilfering the neighbor's lawn gnome collection, and not even if someone who is on the confidential informant payroll thinks they might have smelled marijuana smoke walking by someone's house.

It is not a question of having the ability to use the appropriate amount of force when needed, it remains a question of the inappropriate use of force.

Those who were involved in the raid where a carelessly tossed flashbang blew the meat off a toddler's chest and face failed to assess the situation, including who was present and who wasn't. It is questionable if the raid style would have been appropriate even if the person they wanted had been there and the child had not.

[Robert DeLong]

Sorry Michael A. Cohen, not really, but you are dead wrong. No pun intended. The American gun culture has been here since the beginning. The real cause is America’s immoral culture. Now want to try again. idiot?

[Domangart]

Yea but they got killed. Nothing is better than free when it comes to gear.

[Secret Agent Man]

what a crock.

they worry more about law abiding folks than the criminals.

wtf is wrong in this country...

[gigster]

Bravo,Vendome.Nicely said.

[Finny]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm ........... a lot of the "US gun culture" is made up of cops in civilian hobbies.

WFT?

[Finny]

You are exactly right!

change the message -- "America’s gun culture" should be America's GANG culture. -- flip the script but do it quick

In my admittedly limited experience, a lot of the true AGC is made up of hobby-type shooters, and there are a lot of LEOs among them, and retired LEOs. You nailed it precisely -- the MSM isn't talking about AGC, they're talking about America's GANG culture!!!

Well said!

[Finny]

Citizens have always had more and better guns than most police departments.

Amen Bro Freeper.

[Finny]

This trend is troubling to pretty much all the retired LEOs I know. In my daily life for real, I regard official uniformed cops as dubious allies at best until proven friends, and at worst dangerous power-lust adolescents with the force of sympathetic courts. Too many cops get away with flat murder. If not for friends I've made in AmGnCltr or AGC, I would assume even worse behind 80 percent of badges.

I've also seen situations where literally, good cops change lives and life-paths for the better in people. A good cop is worth his weight in gold, God bless and hold every one of them.

[Jack Hammer]

Anti-gun horse sh*t from the militantly anti-gun liberals at The Boston Globe.

[Finny]

They have such a twisted view of life and people that they are almost like a dog trained for war.

Yeah, that's at the core of it. I see that sometimes in even the best of them. I believe in my heart that some cops, the really good cops, are born cops the same way about 70 percent of truly good nurses are born nurses, in that they knew they were going to grow up to be a nurse when they were 6 years old.

A wonderful guy I know not born to be a cop but who weathered a great career as a big city cop, had that "twisted view" you so accurately pinpoint, but for all he was a good cop because he was at heart a compassionate moral man. The sad thing is that people like that, who have to harden their hearts, then equate compassion and tolerance with "liberalism" and "commie."

The born cops seem to be the types, always men, who know how to read people and who take the time to do it if they can before resolving whatever situation they face. All the great anecdotes they've shared around me, the shootings they avoided or were engaged in, whatever, they don't even realize that they're not thinking so much terms of battle, but of dealing with human drama.

Just musing ...

[Finny]

One size fits all policing is not only wrong, but stupid beyond belief.... If the cops want to be taking rounds from crooks AND a totally p.o.’ed citizenry, then they'd better think long and hard about the last words of General Custer at Little Big Horn: “Where did all the Indians come from?”

Bump to an excellent post.