Military Grade Weapons to Police!!! OMG!!!!

[dutch508]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017352

Pentagon provides military grade weapons to local police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PQHDJn6VOhM

Published on Monday, December 12, 2011 by RT America
Pentagon Provides Military Grade Weapons to Local Police

Local law enforcement has been getting assistance from the Pentagon. The recent militarization of the police at the Occupy protests has proved this true. The Pentagon program is getting military-grade weapons in the hands of local law enforcement in the US to use on American citizens. The Department of Defense has handed over $500 million worth of weapons this year. Is the government gearing up for mainstream to rise up?

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2011/12/12

What exactly are military grade weapons? What does 'recent militarization of [police]' mean? OMG!!! The RIGHT WILL DECLAIREZ TEH MARSHELL LAWZ!!!!

new thread- worth watching.

[Bondai]

The police have been militarized for years now, including the weaponry. Take a look at the show "Son's of guns" sometime.Almost everything he makes is for police application. Do they need this level of armament? I think they over do it quite a bit but cops are increasingly up against some pretty state of the art firepower thanks in no little part to our own justice department. A lot of the toys they have are just for show. I think there should be a review system set up where a civilian agency reviews all requests for military style training and weapons aquisitions before they allowed to be integrated into the system.

My own personal feeling is that our police forces have become too militarized and have far too many military style weapons at their disposal.

[DumbAss Tanker]

There's truth on both sides of this one, but I'm pretty sure the bottom line on all the stuff being transferred is that the vast majority of it is protective gear, commo, and nonlethal equipment rather than actual offensive weaponry.  It's kind difficult to find a productive way to use an AT-4 or Stinger in a civilian police situation.

[thundley4]

Was it a bank robbery shoot out in LA several years ago where the cops were severely out gunned by the crooks?

[BlueStateSaint]

Was it a bank robbery shoot out in LA several years ago where the cops were severely out gunned by the crooks?

Yeah--the LEOs "borrowed" several weapons from local gun stores, of all things, IIRC.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Was it a bank robbery shoot out in LA several years ago where the cops were severely out gunned by the crooks?

It's the most well-known one, but hardly the only one.  There was another incident several years before that with two FBI agents armed with revolvers losing out to a couple of perps who were vets, armed with Mini-14s.  Still, it was their department weapons policy, not the ready availability of heavier weapons on the commercial market, that led to the outcome there.  A full set of battle rattle with inserts, add-ons, headgear, etc. easily costs twice as much as a sound high-capacity tactical rifle.  Full auto capable weapons are more of a complication than a value in police tac operations, since collateral damage is much more of a consideratinon for police than it is for true military operations.   

[Airwolf]

It's the most well-known one, but hardly the only one.  There was another incident several years before that with two FBI agents armed with revolvers losing out to a couple of perps who were vets, armed with Mini-14s.  Still, it was their department weapons policy, not the ready availability of heavier weapons on the commercial market, that led to the outcome there.  A full set of battle rattle with inserts, add-ons, headgear, etc. easily costs twice as much as a sound high-capacity tactical rifle.  Full auto capable weapons are more of a complication than a value in police tac operations, since collateral damage is much more of a consideratinon for police than it is for true military operations.   

It also led to the creation and adoption by the FBI of the 10mm round and the S&W 1076 pistol. Later on came the S&W .40 cal round when someone figured that you could use the same bullet in a smaller case and get similar performance.

[Skul]

Still no replies.
Of course, kpete, posting it in the "video&multimedia" forum, probably has something to do with that.
Stupid DUmpmonkey.