And the reverse is true, as the police militarized many citizens did the same.
“transfixed and horrified”
Transmogrified, to be short, in Calvin & Hobbes speak.
This jerbalist sure has a case of the vapors.
We did...long ago...
Funny no mention of narco terrorists or 9/11.
I remember when SWAT was a TV show and not a jackboot unit enforcing bench warrants.
Americas gun culture.
should be America's GANG culture.
flip the script but do it quick
Nice try, Boston Glob.
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“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. “
Uhn, huh.
And how many incidents like that have occurred in the nearly 20 years hence?
BTW, the cops sucked at shooting, which is why they were outgunned.
Sure, they should have had an AR and a .30 + Caliber in the fight but, their tactics sucked, their aim sucked, etc.
Shoot any idiot in the head with a .308 or .338 and the fight is over.
Don’t matter if they have a helmet on. They will hit the ground hard and hear nothing but bells and then you can unload a mag in them, at will.
And don’t give me this B.S. about shooting under attack.
Those morons were pretty much out in the open and ripe for shootin dead.
The problem now is the pendulum has swung the other way with every Joe Jock acting out their Geardiot dreams on the simplest of crimes and many times they don’t do enough intel to determine if their actual target is in the building.
Witness blowing hole in the chest of a baby.
Wouldn’t have happened if the law wasn’t looking for “So and So?”.
Really? That’s your piss poor excuse for not ascertaining if your target was actually in the building, much less taking care to see your bomb was thrown in a safe manner that didn’t cause injury, yet gave you the element of surprise?
You Roid heads will use any excuse to justify your mediocre work and treating Americans as war hostiles.
You are starting to look like the enemy and sadly I once wanted to be one of you.
I do my best to give my props, as you truly do have a difficult job but, this ain’t Fallujah and you should exert force where appropriate, not just because you “Have officer safety” as your paramount priority.
That isn’t the “US gun Culture”.
BS. Citizens have always had more and better guns than most police departments.
The FBI has released new statistics on NICS background checks showing 2013 gun sales hit a new record. The total number of background checks conducted for gun sales last year add up to 21,093,273, beating the previous 2012 record of 19,592,303 by 1,500,970.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/01/07/2013-saw-record-gun-background-checks-n1772931
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.
*** When powerful semi-automatic and military-style weapons started to appear on the streets,***
Bunkum. Civilians have always been better armed than the army up until 1956.
Back in 1902 outlaw Harry Tracy stacked up dead lawmen like cord wood with nothing but a 30-30 Winchester Rifle. Yet no lawman complained about being “outgunned” by him.
“and the ease with which ordinary citizens ... can get access to them.”
And so why exactly are the police to having to “arm up” to keep up with ordinary citizens, anyway?
BTW, I just LOVE those newspapers like the Globe that require logging in with a paid subscription in order to comment. You ever notice how almost NO ONE ever makes comments in those papers? Ya think maybe it’s because almost NO ONE finds them worth paying for in the first place?
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?)
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?”
LET THE PO PO ARM UP...
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.
Hardly!
WE need to keep up.
Police:
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Do you or your civilian pals have anything like that?