Obama Disarms US Police

[Nice Squirrel]

Jade Helm is only the first step. Now Obama is to disarm the police!

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/18/politics/bayonets-police-white-house/index.html

The Obama administration plans to prohibit federal agencies from providing to local cops certain kinds of military equipment such as grenade launchers, high-caliber weapons and bayonets, in the wake of controversy over a "militarized" police response to unrest last summer in Ferguson, Missouri.

 

[Togo]

In what situation are you safer because your local police have bayonets?

 

[dismal]

In what situation are you safer because your local police have bayonets?

A couple points make what is going on a little clearer. The feds have programs that give police surplus military equipment. Obama is stopping, or at least partially stopping these programs. I don't believe he has the authority to tell police what they can and can't have. In the past these federal program has given police 12,000 bayonets. No one can really explain what police use they have, so it seems to be mostly a ""as long as you're giving them away we may as well take them" sort of thing.

Government is the things we do together, and buying lots of bayonets and giving them to police for no reason is one of those things.

 

[Sarpedon]

In what situation are you safer because your local police have bayonets?

In the situation in which your town is being attacked by Generale Santa Ana, and they don't have time to reload their flintlocks.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

In what situation are you safer because your local police have bayonets?

In the situation in which your town is being attacked by Generale Santa Ana, and they don't have time to reload their flintlocks.

Sounds like Wisconsin.

 

[arkirk]

In what situation are you safer because your local police have bayonets?

In the situation in which your town is being attacked by Generale Santa Ana, and they don't have time to reload their flintlocks.

It is just another baby step on the road to totalitarianism. America should be more on guard against a U.S. version of China's Red Guard in the time of the Cultural Revolution. Because we accept war elsewhere, we have to expect at some point some aspects of war to come home and eventually be used at home. More and more, we are living in a security state...you wanna fly...take off your shoes and get x-rayed. When and where will it stop? Arming cops with war stuff is supposed to protect the elite from revolts. There is another way to keep revolts from happening....it is called contentment. Stop making life progressively harder for those on the bottom of this system. That can be done and in fact also involve everybody by recognizing ways that all can be gainfully employed. I really doesn't have to be at the point of a bayonet.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I would think grenade launchers would be quite reasonable equipment for a SWAT team--just because the military loads them with things that go boom doesn't mean that's the only thing they can fire. Putting tear gas through the window will be more reliable if it comes from a grenade launcher rather than somebody's arm.

 

[arkirk]

I would think grenade launchers would be quite reasonable equipment for a SWAT team--just because the military loads them with things that go boom doesn't mean that's the only thing they can fire. Putting tear gas through the window will be more reliable if it comes from a grenade launcher rather than somebody's arm.

As usual for you, you always support more violence. Your view of our homes and neighborhoods is one of a combat zone where grenades are a necessity. I am curious. Did you ever engage in combat yourself? You make this gear SOP for cops on civilian streets and they are suddenly war zones. You just don't seem to have anything but the foggiest idea of what is justifiable police behavior.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

I would think grenade launchers would be quite reasonable equipment for a SWAT team--just because the military loads them with things that go boom doesn't mean that's the only thing they can fire. Putting tear gas through the window will be more reliable if it comes from a grenade launcher rather than somebody's arm.

Damn straight. What could go wrong?
http://abcnews.go.com/US/family-toddler-injured-swat-grenade-faces-1m-medical/story?id=27671521

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I would think grenade launchers would be quite reasonable equipment for a SWAT team--just because the military loads them with things that go boom doesn't mean that's the only thing they can fire. Putting tear gas through the window will be more reliable if it comes from a grenade launcher rather than somebody's arm.

Damn straight. What could go wrong?
http://abcnews.go.com/US/family-toddler-injured-swat-grenade-faces-1m-medical/story?id=27671521

Hey, the flash bang worked better than could have been imagined. It is just supposed to disorient people, not harm them physically.

 

[fromderinside]

In the situation in which your town is being attacked by Generale Santa Ana, and they don't have time to reload their flintlocks.

It is just another baby step on the road to totalitarianism. America should be more on guard against a U.S. version of China's Red Guard in the time of the Cultural Revolution. Because we accept war elsewhere, we have to expect at some point some aspects of war to come home and eventually be used at home. More and more, we are living in a security state...you wanna fly...take off your shoes and get x-rayed. When and where will it stop? Arming cops with war stuff is supposed to protect the elite from revolts. There is another way to keep revolts from happening....it is called contentment. Stop making life progressively harder for those on the bottom of this system. That can be done and in fact also involve everybody by recognizing ways that all can be gainfully employed. I really doesn't have to be at the point of a bayonet.

Good post, in the sense your concern is with citizens. The US has no right recruiting local social protection services (cops and state police) as an armed part of a national hunt for the ISIS types though. We should be very careful to what extent the government has authority to invade citizen privacy. Our individual job becomes one of fixing health care and social support systems as you imply.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

I would think grenade launchers would be quite reasonable equipment for a SWAT team--just because the military loads them with things that go boom doesn't mean that's the only thing they can fire. Putting tear gas through the window will be more reliable if it comes from a grenade launcher rather than somebody's arm.

Could make sense with enough oversight. Just dont let the police have grenades and instead provide them with teargas or taser grenades. And place a limit on supply so the police are encouraged to use this only in extreme scenarios.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I would think grenade launchers would be quite reasonable equipment for a SWAT team--just because the military loads them with things that go boom doesn't mean that's the only thing they can fire. Putting tear gas through the window will be more reliable if it comes from a grenade launcher rather than somebody's arm.

As usual for you, you always support more violence. Your view of our homes and neighborhoods is one of a combat zone where grenades are a necessity. I am curious. Did you ever engage in combat yourself? You make this gear SOP for cops on civilian streets and they are suddenly war zones. You just don't seem to have anything but the foggiest idea of what is justifiable police behavior.

Do you not realize that lobbing in tear gas is a reasonably common thing for police to do in standoffs?

- - - Updated - - -

I would think grenade launchers would be quite reasonable equipment for a SWAT team--just because the military loads them with things that go boom doesn't mean that's the only thing they can fire. Putting tear gas through the window will be more reliable if it comes from a grenade launcher rather than somebody's arm.

Could make sense with enough oversight. Just dont let the police have grenades and instead provide them with teargas or taser grenades. And place a limit on supply so the police are encouraged to use this only in extreme scenarios.

I would certainly object if they had anything but tear gas and smoke. (There's no need for flash-bangs from a grenade launcher--the only reason to use a flash bang is as part of an entry, you have to be right up there anyway, might as well throw it by hand.) However, I won't automatically condemn grenade launchers since a legitimate use exists for them.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

As usual for you, you always support more violence. Your view of our homes and neighborhoods is one of a combat zone where grenades are a necessity. I am curious. Did you ever engage in combat yourself? You make this gear SOP for cops on civilian streets and they are suddenly war zones. You just don't seem to have anything but the foggiest idea of what is justifiable police behavior.

Do you not realize that lobbing in tear gas is a reasonably common thing for police to do in standoffs?

You do know the difference between "lobbing" a grenade by hand and shooting it up to 2 miles distance with the force of a cannon? Why don't police just use real bullets on crowds they don't like?

But then again, people being SWATted deserve it.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Obama does something right.

I seem to recall something about a stopped clock...