War Gear Flows to Police Departments

originally posted by: Britguy
The reality is, they are being used for simple and routine issues against non-violent people, the result being that a simple misdemeanor can now get a SWAT team kicking in your door, shooting the family pet and holding you and your family at gunpoint. Heaven help anyone who has any object in their hand when they come crashing through the door as it'll be immediately identified as a weapon and justify a hail of bullets.

Do they really need a mine resistant armoured personnel carrier, body armour, snipers and automatic weapons to serve a warrant against a non-violent offender? Of course not, but these idiots like dressing up and treating everyone as "the enemy" in some make believe war zone.

So fix it. Take an interest in state and local politics and change the policies. The cops are going to say civilians potentially have access to most of this stuff so they need it too in order to not be outgunned. Once the police say this, a politician can't go against it because it looks like taking the side of criminals over the police. If you want to change this it's not easy but there is a path, convince the public that being against expanding police powers and being pro criminals aren't the same thing. Once you do that, things will change.
2.

originally posted by: Sremmos80
And wtf do cops need with apcs? If they can have them then the citizens should be able to have them

Does this logic apply to bombs? And nuclear bombs since we're there? Because that's what your logic pretty much imply. Would you trust everyone in your city to have his/her personal nuclear bomb?

originally posted by: jude11
"They started it...We will finish it."

If things don't stop, "They" will be the people, and the ones to finish it will be the gov.

a reply to: elementalgrove

There is someone who, in the past, used this very argument. This someone said to the people that it should stand up against specific "fascist" targets. This someone was Mao Zedong. It ended up with the death of 40 million of people.

Be careful what you wish for. A war may seem romantic in the movies, but it is not. It's the worst things can get.

originally posted by: VforVendettea
IMO - Anything horrible and man made that doesn't affect the guys at the top is a false flag to whip up the masses.
Terrorists are smart enough not to dink around with peons.

In other words - you support terrorists?

originally posted by: savagediver
Violence never solved violence? Then whats up with the cops and all the military gear. Seems to me they solve even a speed ticket with violence. You make no sense to me.

If they use violence and it makes no sense to you, then be better than them.

originally posted by: Aazadan
Do you seriously think this is ok behavior?

No. And to imitate them isn't, neither. Be better than them. You guys are like two children, bullying each other, and when the teacher comes, you point your finger at each other and both say, "He started it!" but now imagine that with guns and APC.

There's a solution to that but no one is ready to think through a peaceful solution, it's easier to just continue bullying each other.

originally posted by: swanne

originally posted by: Sremmos80
And wtf do cops need with apcs? If they can have them then the citizens should be able to have them

Does this logic apply to bombs? And nuclear bombs since we're there? Because that's what your logic pretty much imply. Would you trust everyone in your city to have his/her personal nuclear bomb?

Nice deflect. Cops don't have nukes, this is about the cops...
What do cops need apcs for? What are they going against that they would need that

a reply to: swanne

Reaching just a bit are we?

originally posted by: swanne

originally posted by: Aazadan
Do you seriously think this is ok behavior?

No. And to imitate them isn't, neither. Be better than them. You guys are like two children, bullying each other, and when the teacher comes, you point your finger at each other and both say, "He started it!" but now imagine that with guns and APC.

There's a solution to that but no one is ready to think through a peaceful solution, it's easier to just continue bullying each other.

You're right, there is a peaceful solution. The problem is that it's not politically viable currently. Reigning in the abuses of the police gets painted as being soft on crime and that loses elections. Most Americans at their core are petty, vindictive, small minded jerks who want the most draconian punishments imaginable inflicted on criminals or potential criminals.

Our prisons are slave labor camps that torture prisoners who don't work. When not working it's not uncommon to be raped. In these conditions we have more prisoners per capita than almost any other state in world history. We're even outdoing Stalin with his Gulags and Kim Jong Un. And people say we still need to be even harder on crime. We're already handing out life sentences for stealing bicycles and the constitution is violated left and right.

The fact is, it's not going to change because the majority of people (who don't really get involved in these things) don't want it to change. And they don't want it to change because they don't want to be soft on crime or support criminals.

The police do no knock searches in the middle of the night where they assault you merely for suspicion of wrongdoing. You can be doing everything right and they'll still come by to see if they can find something. This is not acceptable, and it's happening more and more every day.

I don't think violence should be the first reaction to police overreach but at some point diplomacy either succeeds or fails. We're just about at the failure point these days. Some districts are putting cameras on their cops, this is a very good idea but the whole cop culture is corrupt. Even when they do things wrong, they're the ones in charge of investigating themselves so the camera ultimately doesn't help matters. Remember, even the prosecutors have a motive to put you in jail regardless of what the truth is.

All police interactions need to be recorded and available to both the prosecution and defense in a trial. Cases of police brutality/corruption need to be handled by an oversight committee, preferably made up of something like 4 civilians/1 cop as an elected position in every town.

When I goto bed every night, I don't fear a criminal breaking in. I fear the cops doing it. The people that are supposed to protect me. That is not right, and that needs to change.

originally posted by: swanne

originally posted by: VforVendettea
IMO - Anything horrible and man made that doesn't affect the guys at the top is a false flag to whip up the masses.
Terrorists are smart enough not to dink around with peons.

In other words - you support terrorists?

One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. This country was founded through a series of terrorist acts. We praise those terrorists as heroes.

originally posted by: swanne
a reply to: elementalgrove

There is someone who, in the past, used this very argument. This someone said to the people that it should stand up against specific "fascist" targets. This someone was Mao Zedong. It ended up with the death of 40 million of people.

Be careful what you wish for. A war may seem romantic in the movies, but it is not. It's the worst things can get.

Interesting is this the same MAO that was put into power by the west?

jaysanalysis.com...

a reply to: swanne

The Chinese do not commit crimes in America in epidemic proportions, according to statistical facts.

It happened to me many times over the years and I know people that it has happened to recently. You see, I live in one of the biggest speed traps in America. Not only that, if you are out past a certain hour, you are targeted. I have buddies who work night shift and have been pulled over a bunch of times and treated like criminals. The cops ask "where are you going?? Where are you coming from?? what who how when why". It isn't none of their damn business. There's also checkpoints put up from time to time. All they do is harass people. Well, not the elite who live in this town. They do whatever they want to. So doesn't their family members.

Once, I got off on the wrong exit in a town about an hour from me and I got shook down. The cop was like: "This is a high crime drug area, what're you doing here??". I was like "what does that have to do with me?? I'm not breaking any laws and you illegally pulled me over". He said "I pulled you over for suspicion".
I am an American citizen and I have the right to travel any public street that I want at ant time of the day or night and no cop should bother me unless I have committed a crime in front of him. This "suspicion" crap isn't right, and it isn't my fault that some area is a high crime drug area. That sounds like the cops aren't doing their job.

Based on my experience, I'd say that 1 out of 10 cops is okay. The rest became cops for the wrong reasons and they treat people badly. This is everywhere. It is a rampant problem. It's obvious that the police are not there to protect and serve the people. They are there to protect and serve the government. The police has become a military expansion of the Unites States government.