4 ms·

Let me help you visualize it, in the midwest i live in a town of ~80k people. The local police department just spent money on buying a armored bearcat assault v

Let me help you visualize it, in the midwest i live in a town of ~80k people. The local police department just spent money on buying a armored bearcat assault vehicle.[0] At the city council meetings we were assured that the vehicle would 'hopefully never' need to be used. And people fought back saying that the there is no need for this in our small town. There are literal gun ports out the sides of the thing like a tank. They ended up buying it, and now that they have spent massive amounts of money on it, they are probably going to find some excuse to use it. For reference they bought the Military warzone model not the SWAT model. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenco_BearCat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenco_BearCat

maxxxxx 8y ago
I think the glorification of the military they did during the Gulf wars to avoid a backlash like during Vietnam is backfiring now. Now everybody wants to get on the "military warrior" bandwagon. Cops don't just want to do boring police work to keep the peace, even in tech we now have "boot camps".
- fouc 8y ago
  Bootcamps don't make me think of war/military though. It just makes me think of pushups and climbing over walls and crawling through mud under rope.
  - PeanutNore 8y ago
    And swabbing the latrines with a toothbrush
  - lostlogin 8y ago
    Where I am the term instantly conjours up visuals of Lycra clad men and women shouting to each other as they do push ups on my driveway while someone else changes the music to a different track every 30 seconds. Generally it’s 5.45am and I hate them.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  American police forces were paramilitary forces in several cases originally created largely as ethnic gangs to violently suppress other ethnic gangs, and have always been on a warrior model (and in many ways less restrained in use of force than the actual military); the problem does not stem from Gulf War propaganda. (OTOH, it has been exacerbated in the last couple decades by War on Terror propaganda, and by policies around military to law enforcement transfers of surplus equipment, complete with “use it or lose it” rules.)
  - mfoy_ 8y ago
    and all that sweet, sweet military surplus.
jstarfish 8y ago
The military version was likely cheaper than the SWAT model. There is a lot of surplus military hardware being bought up by local PDs.
- mfoy_ 8y ago
  Which I see as a much larger problem... you're putting military hardware in the hands of local police officers.
  - lovehashbrowns 8y ago
    Right?! How that's used as any kind of justification seems insane to me. Oh, don't worry! It's surplus military equipment... ?! That alone is startling. It's infinitely worse when you consider that this military equipment will then be used to raid alleged drug dealers/users--AKA killing puppies, flashbanging babies, and stealing private property with no practical legal recourse. Even if it were ONLY ever used for 100% guilty drug users and dealers, it's in the name of a failed drug war.
crankylinuxuser 8y ago
Yep, fellow Bloomingtonian (IN) here as well. I'm the one who stood in city council and asked 6 questions (and emailed as requested) regarding corruption of Mayor Hamilton and Police Chief Diekhoff. If you dig deeper, you also find things like how a sitting judge over criminal proceedings is also the police cheif's wife. It's moving the overton window that more violence is normalized alongside sliding military tools into civilian countermeasures. But hey, they brought out the bearcat for a "possible gun domestic disturbance". And the sliding window goes further to fascism.
blattimwind 8y ago
> Type: Non-military armored vehicle [picture of armored car with MG nest on the roof follows] Recognise newspeak when you see it.

maxxxxx 8y ago

I think the glorification of the military they did during the Gulf wars to avoid a backlash like during Vietnam is backfiring now. Now everybody wants to get on the "military warrior" bandwagon. Cops don't just want to do boring police work to keep the peace, even in tech we now have "boot camps".

fouc 8y ago
Bootcamps don't make me think of war/military though. It just makes me think of pushups and climbing over walls and crawling through mud under rope.
- PeanutNore 8y ago
  And swabbing the latrines with a toothbrush
- lostlogin 8y ago
  Where I am the term instantly conjours up visuals of Lycra clad men and women shouting to each other as they do push ups on my driveway while someone else changes the music to a different track every 30 seconds. Generally it’s 5.45am and I hate them.
dragonwriter 8y ago
American police forces were paramilitary forces in several cases originally created largely as ethnic gangs to violently suppress other ethnic gangs, and have always been on a warrior model (and in many ways less restrained in use of force than the actual military); the problem does not stem from Gulf War propaganda. (OTOH, it has been exacerbated in the last couple decades by War on Terror propaganda, and by policies around military to law enforcement transfers of surplus equipment, complete with “use it or lose it” rules.)
- mfoy_ 8y ago
  and all that sweet, sweet military surplus.

jstarfish 8y ago

The military version was likely cheaper than the SWAT model. There is a lot of surplus military hardware being bought up by local PDs.

mfoy_ 8y ago
Which I see as a much larger problem... you're putting military hardware in the hands of local police officers.
- lovehashbrowns 8y ago
  Right?! How that's used as any kind of justification seems insane to me. Oh, don't worry! It's surplus military equipment... ?! That alone is startling. It's infinitely worse when you consider that this military equipment will then be used to raid alleged drug dealers/users--AKA killing puppies, flashbanging babies, and stealing private property with no practical legal recourse. Even if it were ONLY ever used for 100% guilty drug users and dealers, it's in the name of a failed drug war.

crankylinuxuser 8y ago

Yep, fellow Bloomingtonian (IN) here as well. I'm the one who stood in city council and asked 6 questions (and emailed as requested) regarding corruption of Mayor Hamilton and Police Chief Diekhoff. If you dig deeper, you also find things like how a sitting judge over criminal proceedings is also the police cheif's wife. It's moving the overton window that more violence is normalized alongside sliding military tools into civilian countermeasures. But hey, they brought out the bearcat for a "possible gun domestic disturbance". And the sliding window goes further to fascism.

blattimwind 8y ago

> Type: Non-military armored vehicle [picture of armored car with MG nest on the roof follows] Recognise newspeak when you see it.