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US gun culture has police arming to keep up
The Boston Globe ^ | August 23, 2014 | Michael A. Cohen

Posted on 08/22/2014 10:17:50 PM PDT by 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)

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


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: banglist; ferguson; guncontrol; lawenforcement; missouri
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Yes of course, the people that commit the least amount of crime per capita are the reason for the militarization of police.


81 posted on 08/23/2014 10:41:00 AM PDT by spodefly (This is my tag line. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

So the proliferation of firearms is causing more violence, as is cited in the increase in police kills in Massachusetts, then the police should be disarming, not arming up.


82 posted on 08/23/2014 10:57:51 AM PDT by School of Rational Thought
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To: Brooklyn Attitude

.

- Who paid? That is an excellent question “Brooklyn Attitude” -

- They say that billionaire George Soros and his “Open Society” is bankrolling anti-law enforcement in the USA -

- Great - the traiterous turncoat teenage Jew that worked for the NAZIS in WWII - whatta creepy slimeball -

-


83 posted on 08/23/2014 11:32:03 AM PDT by devolve (- "If an idiot puts on a USMC t-shirt to play basketball it does not mean he is not a damn pansy! -)
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To: devolve

“- They say that billionaire George Soros and his “Open Society” is bankrolling anti-law enforcement in the USA -”

Strategically that would be just the sort of thing that could be used to discredit Soros. Too bad Repubs are too stupid to use it.


84 posted on 08/23/2014 11:56:21 AM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (Things are only going to get worse.)
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To: Lazamataz

i was referring to the cops in this piece, but yeah they’re liberals/socialists who only want their security forces - ie police,/private guards - to have guns -and themselves of course.


85 posted on 08/23/2014 12:08:53 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: ought-six; MasterGunner01
You left out the rest of the quote. Here it is, in full: “Where did all the Indians come from? They look friendly enough.”

Actually, Six, that was Master Gunner's post that I had bumped. :^)

I have to wonder ... if there were no survivors, how does anyone know what Custer's last words were?

86 posted on 08/23/2014 2:01:49 PM PDT by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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To: Finny

He was able to text those words before the signal died.


87 posted on 08/23/2014 2:06:48 PM PDT by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: ought-six
Ah!! Okay.{^)

Yet ... I remember reading another famous quote somewhere:

"Don't trust everything you read on the internet." -- Abraham Lincoln

88 posted on 08/23/2014 2:11:15 PM PDT by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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To: Travis McGee

Didn’t someone make a movie once in which only the police and military had guns?


89 posted on 08/23/2014 3:56:39 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Finny
According to the History Channel write-up for the DVD: “...a soldier named August Finkle was the lone survivor of “Custer's Last Stand,” a battle that is practically synonymous with “no survivors.” Forensics on the man's skeleton and his two gunshot wounds definitely show that the story he reluctantly told the world nearly 50 years after the battle was true. He alone survived, and his tale of what actually went on in the battle should revise our interpretation of the events of the day. The special reveals the amazing story of seven others who very nearly survived—who rode for miles away from the carnage only to succumb to their own fear and turn their weapons on themselves.”

I saw the History Channel special and they did make the case for a sole survivor. The other survivor was a horse, “Comanche”.

90 posted on 08/23/2014 11:32:44 PM PDT by MasterGunner01
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To: Finny

Actually, Lincoln didn’t SAY that, as in orally, but he did post it on his website while he was staying at a Holiday Inn.


91 posted on 08/24/2014 4:56:50 AM PDT by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: Ray76

Thanks for the pics.

Yea, they are just trying to keep up.

Does this mean I get one? or two or three?


92 posted on 08/24/2014 12:29:48 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - a Classical Christian Approach to Homeschool])
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To: MasterGunner01
Fascinating!!! Thanks for the post.

Ever read Thomas Berger's "Little Big Man"? Great book, better than the movie which was pretty good for a movie, and ... the main character was the only survivor of Little Big Horn!

93 posted on 08/27/2014 11:22:44 AM PDT by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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To: ought-six

Wow! I learn something new every day!! {^)


94 posted on 08/27/2014 11:23:16 AM PDT by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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