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it's a natural conclusion of the militarization of the police. The police gets a bunch of toys it doesn't need and then itches to use them on something.

djbusby 3y ago
Like developer with new shiny JavaScript framework/toolkit. Gotta use it at the next opportunity. Human condition to want to use the gear you're excited about. I'm glad my work is crappy rather than dangerous.
Log_out_ 3y ago
And it's utterly useless.. What good does a tank against a drone with an rpg7 head. Real resistence by a gang would obliberate a Swatteam. A cold War style armament spiral between gangs and police can not end in success.
- Y-bar 3y ago
  But it can end in a kind of success for the arms manufacturers, their shareholders, the “hard on crime” politicians, the upper management of the police force, and the pro-police state people who gets validation for their calls ever-increasing need for violence.
timeon 3y ago
Militarization of the police is just symptom. Root cause is that police needs to expect that almost anyone in the US could be armed. This is not the case elsewhere.
- actionfromafar 3y ago
  If we are going for root causes, aren't there assault rifles in most Swiss homes, for instance? And yet...
  - johannes1234321 3y ago
    In Switzerland the guns are typically locked away and out of reach. While guns may exist in a house, for police it's unlikely to be confronted with it.
    - Clubber 3y ago
      It's unlikely police get confronted with guns in the US too; we just have 350 million people, extremely authoritarian police culture, and a corporate news that jumps on the chance to report every instance. I would wager way more citizens are killed by police (rightfully or not) than police are killed by citizens.
- nucleardog 3y ago
  Estimates are that there’s a firearm in 23-33% of Canadian households, while estimates for the US are around 44%. I don’t disagree that the firearms are a problem, or even a factor, but it certainly doesn’t seem likely that it’s the root cause unless there’s some tipping point between 1-1.5/5 houses and 2/5 houses that makes things substantially more dangerous.
- int_19h 3y ago
  This was true long before police was militarized. Militarization of police was indeed a symptom, but rather a symptom of the War on Drugs - the first SWAT team (in LA) was organized largely for that purpose.

djbusby 3y ago

Like developer with new shiny JavaScript framework/toolkit. Gotta use it at the next opportunity. Human condition to want to use the gear you're excited about. I'm glad my work is crappy rather than dangerous.

Log_out_ 3y ago

And it's utterly useless.. What good does a tank against a drone with an rpg7 head. Real resistence by a gang would obliberate a Swatteam. A cold War style armament spiral between gangs and police can not end in success.

Y-bar 3y ago
But it can end in a kind of success for the arms manufacturers, their shareholders, the “hard on crime” politicians, the upper management of the police force, and the pro-police state people who gets validation for their calls ever-increasing need for violence.

timeon 3y ago

Militarization of the police is just symptom. Root cause is that police needs to expect that almost anyone in the US could be armed. This is not the case elsewhere.

actionfromafar 3y ago
If we are going for root causes, aren't there assault rifles in most Swiss homes, for instance? And yet...
- johannes1234321 3y ago
  In Switzerland the guns are typically locked away and out of reach. While guns may exist in a house, for police it's unlikely to be confronted with it.
  - Clubber 3y ago
    It's unlikely police get confronted with guns in the US too; we just have 350 million people, extremely authoritarian police culture, and a corporate news that jumps on the chance to report every instance. I would wager way more citizens are killed by police (rightfully or not) than police are killed by citizens.
nucleardog 3y ago
Estimates are that there’s a firearm in 23-33% of Canadian households, while estimates for the US are around 44%. I don’t disagree that the firearms are a problem, or even a factor, but it certainly doesn’t seem likely that it’s the root cause unless there’s some tipping point between 1-1.5/5 houses and 2/5 houses that makes things substantially more dangerous.
int_19h 3y ago
This was true long before police was militarized. Militarization of police was indeed a symptom, but rather a symptom of the War on Drugs - the first SWAT team (in LA) was organized largely for that purpose.