General Discussion

When was there justification for outfitting municipal police departments with these kinds of war toys? Is this downtown Baghdad? Are these the lawless wilds of Afghanistan? When? Are our municipal police departments supposed to be outfitted like Imperial Stormtroopers? "Protect and serve" calls for this? Where are the IEDs here in this country? Where are the bomb-throwers and the uber-armed? Well - I might understand using this kind of equipment for the police who have to face the cliven bundy crowd. But I haven't seen a single sniper among the crowds in Ferguson. Never have seen ANY of the protesters there hunkered down in war-position aiming their high-powered rifles and assault weapons at any peace officers. I haven't seen anyone in those Ferguson protests armed - AT ALL. Except for a few rocks and bottles. It's ridiculous overkill. And there's no place for any of those war toys in our suburbs! There's no reason for it. Then OR now. Especially the way it's structured, where the Pentagon can simply stovepipe those war toys down to local precincts. WTF??? There's no reason whatsoever for any local constabulary to have such equipment at their disposal. Lizz Brown was correct. "Boys and their toys." And I've seen that mentality too often. You make these toys available, the kids are gonna want to play with them. You give them a hammer and everything they see turns into a nail. That is the mentality we should be enabling in our local police? YES. SHAME. SHAME ON THEM for going there.