Albuquerque Police - Accused of Excessive Force Buying Hundreds of Semi-Auto Rifles To Solve Problem [View all]

Last edited Fri Jul 11, 2014, 11:14 PM - Edit history (1)

Albuquerque police, sometimes dubbed the worst in the country among many over-militarized police departments for its long record of well-armed abuses, have come up with an innovative response to a DOJ investigation finding officers using their own personal assault rifles as "status symbols” have contributed to a "pattern and practice" of excessive force: Now, the police will buy them their assault rifles. The APD - which has paid $24 million in legal settlements to shooting victims' families (but never prosecuted a cop), long indulged in the practice of shooting at moving vehicles to slow them down, and recently faced widespread protests and a "people's trial" of their police chief after the killing of a homeless man - says it is buying 350 AR-15 assault rifles, the civilian version of the military-grade M16 used to kill that same homeless man, for $350,000 in order to replace on the taxpayers' dime the officers' own weapons they were consistenly abusing, because "that training shouldn't go to waste." So now, all good. Walter White, come home.

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2014/07/11-0