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I encourage Americans to think about this militarization at their next Fourth of July Parade. Watching the Sheriff's Department marching, in formation, dressed

• microcolonel 9y ago
  > With whom are they going to war, exactly? The criminals who are attacking them in neighbourhoods you don't go to.
  • samcheng 9y ago
    This particular Sheriff's Department hasn't lost an officer in the line of duty since 1998 (and that's a good thing): https://www.odmp.org/agency/3457-san-mateo-county-sheriffs-office-california https://www.odmp.org/agency/3457-san-mateo-county-sheriffs-o... San Mateo county's violent crime rate is 2.1 per 1,000 people, well below the US national average of about 3.7.
    • microcolonel 9y ago
      > This particular Sheriff's Department hasn't lost an officer in the line of duty since 1998 (and that's a good thing): Great, here's to the next two decades of nobody being shot in a county where the neighbourhood with the most violent crime still has housing prices higher than 99.4%(!) of the country. The next time somebody is shooting at them, they might have the armoured vehicle out; you should be happy for that. Armoured vehicles are not a weapon of war, they are a common tool for protecting business and life. Banks use armoured cars , VIPs use armoured cars. If you were responding to a shootout, even if it's the first and last of your career, you would want to arrive in an armoured car.