4 ms·

I'm not saying it's warranted for Police to have military weapons - but wouldn't departments that request military gear be somewhat correlated with ones with mo

I'm not saying it's warranted for Police to have military weapons - but wouldn't departments that request military gear be somewhat correlated with ones with more intense crime. I'm guessing there aren't many sleepy hamlets that request the high-end stuff.

dfxm12 6y ago
Why guess when the data is out there? https://www.themarshallproject.org/mp-graphics/201412-dod/embed.html https://www.themarshallproject.org/mp-graphics/201412-dod/em...
mywittyname 6y ago
The police department at Ohio State University has an APC. No city in the USA, much less college campus, looks like a war zone. I would hope most people would not need to experience Kandahar first-hand to understand this fact.
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  No city in the USA looks like a war zone, but they can encounter situations that are dangerous. Things like gang shootouts or riots. I don't understand why APCs are a reason to be outraged. They are armored personnel carriers. Is it bad to want to keep our limited, trained, experienced police staff safe? I feel like APCs and MRAPs have been picked as a target of manufactured outrage without any concrete reason to actually be outraged.
  - yborg 6y ago
    It's commonly understood by even a child that an armored military vehicle belongs in a war zone. Having one driving around your home town sends the message that you live in a war zone, and guess what - you, the citizen, are the enemy. Even if they are reserved for "gang shootouts or riots" you are wasting money in the 95% of US towns that don't have gang shootouts or riots on such a regular basis that police need to engage in military operations to contain them. So I'm outraged as a taxpayer to see my money being wasted.
    - throwawaysea 6y ago
      > It's commonly understood by even a child that an armored military vehicle belongs in a war zone I don't feel it is "commonly understood". Remove the word 'military' from your descriptor of the vehicle and let's talk in specifics. Do people working in dangerous conditions deserve protection? Yes. Do we need police to handle dangerous conditions even if they are rare? Yes. Do some of those situations require armor to protect them? Yes. Do they require a transport to get police to or from those situations? Yes. So we need armored vehicles, on rare occasions. The fact that an armored vehicle was used by the military is not really relevant. >So I'm outraged as a taxpayer to see my money being wasted. Why are you outraged at getting free surplus equipment that may be at end of life for military purposes? And what is a 'regular basis'? It doesn't matter if it is once a year - the police still need to handle that situation and need to be able to do it safely.
- lovetocode 6y ago
  You should check out Baltimore
  - lovetocode 6y ago
    I’m not wrong you should really check out Baltimore.
- lovetocode 6y ago
  What does a war zone look like exactly?

dfxm12 6y ago

Why guess when the data is out there? https://www.themarshallproject.org/mp-graphics/201412-dod/embed.html https://www.themarshallproject.org/mp-graphics/201412-dod/em...

mywittyname 6y ago

The police department at Ohio State University has an APC. No city in the USA, much less college campus, looks like a war zone. I would hope most people would not need to experience Kandahar first-hand to understand this fact.

throwawaysea 6y ago
No city in the USA looks like a war zone, but they can encounter situations that are dangerous. Things like gang shootouts or riots. I don't understand why APCs are a reason to be outraged. They are armored personnel carriers. Is it bad to want to keep our limited, trained, experienced police staff safe? I feel like APCs and MRAPs have been picked as a target of manufactured outrage without any concrete reason to actually be outraged.
- yborg 6y ago
  It's commonly understood by even a child that an armored military vehicle belongs in a war zone. Having one driving around your home town sends the message that you live in a war zone, and guess what - you, the citizen, are the enemy. Even if they are reserved for "gang shootouts or riots" you are wasting money in the 95% of US towns that don't have gang shootouts or riots on such a regular basis that police need to engage in military operations to contain them. So I'm outraged as a taxpayer to see my money being wasted.
  - throwawaysea 6y ago
    > It's commonly understood by even a child that an armored military vehicle belongs in a war zone I don't feel it is "commonly understood". Remove the word 'military' from your descriptor of the vehicle and let's talk in specifics. Do people working in dangerous conditions deserve protection? Yes. Do we need police to handle dangerous conditions even if they are rare? Yes. Do some of those situations require armor to protect them? Yes. Do they require a transport to get police to or from those situations? Yes. So we need armored vehicles, on rare occasions. The fact that an armored vehicle was used by the military is not really relevant. >So I'm outraged as a taxpayer to see my money being wasted. Why are you outraged at getting free surplus equipment that may be at end of life for military purposes? And what is a 'regular basis'? It doesn't matter if it is once a year - the police still need to handle that situation and need to be able to do it safely.
lovetocode 6y ago
You should check out Baltimore
- lovetocode 6y ago
  I’m not wrong you should really check out Baltimore.
lovetocode 6y ago
What does a war zone look like exactly?