16 thoughts on “Militarized Police Departments”

  1. MRAPs are not tanks. There is too much emphasis on how subjectively scary camo pants, common guns, and MRAPs look rather than how they are used. Take those tools away and cops still act inappropriately. It is such a shame to see people use the same BS language used to try and ban guns.

  2. I was sent this comment by someone who wants to remain anonymous:

    “The first ten years of my life were spent in Ferguson, MO. The house I lived in (built by my grandfather) was on Wesley Avenue. A quick MapQuest search will show you how close that is to the troubles there now. I recall being able to walk all over downtown, which was just half a block down the hill, walk to January Wabash Park, where the swimming pool was, without any fear or worry. In fact, I and my ‘Spanky and the Gang’ pals roamed all over the place. We meandered within at least a mile radius from my house. I attend Central School, just half a block up the hill from the house, and was taught by the same teachers who had my mom in their classes. Everyone knew everyone else, or at least had an idea who was whom.

    Ferguson was a lovely, quiet St. Louis suburb, mostly middle-class families who worked at McDonnell or the match factory or the flour mill, or who owned their own businesses: the hardware store, the drug store, the bowling alley, etc., were all on the same block I lived on. I remember being out one day for too long. The police found me at the behest of my mom and brought me back. Smiles and ‘don’t go so far again without telling me first’ scolding. The cops were Friends.

    But in 1958 the town council and mayor of Ferguson started what led to the riots today. They seized our property.

    The center of the block I lived on was wild wood. Seriously wild wood. Some of the oak trees there were 80′ tall, and so far around that even with joined hands we couldn’t circle the trees. There was a small shallow cave. There was a meadow. Mulberry trees provided shade and fruit. We chased rabbits and possums and raccoons. About twenty families were able to let their kids run wild in the wood, while closer to the houses were extensive gardens. My grandfather was famous for his apple trees, and in the summer I’d come back scratched up from the blackberry bushes. The city council decided that this wood was a waste, and seized the land from those families who owned it, over the vigourous objections of everyone (including the movie theater, the Savoy; the building is still there but I can’t tell what it is anymore) on the block. Eminent Domain. The wood and gardens were bulldozed and paved over to make a parking lot for… who? No one wanted the parking lot. No one asked for the parking lot. No one needed the parking lot. No one used the parking lot. Our homes, which had been shaded in the spring and summer, and picturesque in the fall and winter, now had tiny back yards that emptied onto glaring blacktop and blazing mercury vapor lights that at night flooded our bedrooms hideously. No more sleeping on the porch in the summer. The owls, possums, bluejays and other wildlife vanished. And so did my parents. We sold the house and left in sorrow and disgust, eventually winding up in Arizona.

    My point is that the city of Ferguson started what has culminated in today’s riots. The People in Charge, who thought they were better than us common folk, pushed out the small shopkeepers and people who worked at the mill or McDonnell, and brought in people who had no ties or interest in Ferguson as a community. The result of those policies we witness today. It makes me ill.”

  3. I think just arming the Kurds is a bad idea. Sure, they’ll take on ISIS or whatever they call themselves this week, but what happens when the Kurds attack NATO ally Turkey? Does the US just throw the NATO treaty in the garbage?

    If you’re going to have a war, don’t do it by half measures and backdoor proxy maneuvers. Instead, fight to win. Obama managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq because he wanted the troops out of there for political optics, rather than staying for a decade or two until the country was actually stable (cf. Germany, Japan, Philippines). So now he’s guaranteed a few more decades of war. Sending arms to the Kurds just adds fuel to the fire.

    Instead of just arming the Kurds, send American troops, lots of them. Think Surge numbers. Then keep killing people until they get it through their heads to stop fighting. Nuke Mecca if you have to drive that point home – if there’s no Hajj possible for 25 thousand years, there won’t be any Islam in a generation.

      1. It has nothing to do with their intelligence. There is a significant Kurdish population in eastern Turkey, and Turkey has had its share of headaches from Kurdish separatists for the last 30 years. If we are arming the Kurds in Iraq then we’re also arming their cousins in Turkey.

        1. Oh, I think it has very much to do with their intelligence. They will end up with their own de facto state out of this mess. They won’t want to jeopardize that by attacking Turkey. Either their cousins will come south across the border, or the Turks will be willing to carve out a little land for a new Kurdistan. It will make their lives much easier.

        2. Ed,

          It would be my hope that the Kurds in Turkey would emmigrate to the new Kurdistan and that would actually solve a problem for Turkey.

          The only thing that could mess tht up is if the Kurds then wanted to annex a slice of Turkey (snicker). That would be a hugely stupid mistake. I suspect they know that.

    2. the jaws of victory in Iraq … rather than staying for a decade or two

      Those are some slow-closing jaws.

      Then keep killing people until they get it through their heads to stop fighting.

      “The killings will continue until morale improves.”

      Nuke Mecca if you have to drive that point home – if there’s no Hajj possible for 25 thousand years, there won’t be any Islam in a generation.

      No, you’ll just have a billion Muslims with more reason to hate us, and more motivation to fight.

      1. “No, you’ll just have a billion Muslims with more reason to hate us, and more motivation to fight.”

        While I don’t advocate nuking Mecca (or anywhere else), when dealing with people who would joyously cut your head off while you scream in agony, it’s ridiculous to worry about “angering” them.

        1. The left is always afraid. Remember how terrified they were when Reagan put the Pershings in Germany?

          “OOOOHHH, we don’t want to do anything to upset the Soviets, they’ll punch us in the nose!”

          Of course, today its the same thing. Missiles in Poland were wrong because they would upset the Russians. So many of these people are just scared of everything.

      2. When it comes to motivating Islamic militants, our actions are not the cause of their behavior. Their ideology is.

        The Oil for Food program was used for recruitment. The Iraq war was used for recruitment. Our lifestyles are used for recruitment. Our inaction as well as our actions are used for recruitment. They will use anything and everything real or imagined to recruit for their cause.

        We should make them fear how their actions cause our anger and not how everything we do or don’t do makes them want to kill us because it matters not if we stay at home or engage the world when it comes to their core ideology and the root cause of their behavior.

        Appeasement doesn’t work. You pay the danegeld, you get more Danes. We have about ten thousand years of human history we can study the effects of human nature and war. It would be nice if leftist positions acknowledged the human experience.

        We used to say things like, “Never again” and “With great power comes great responsibility.” But too often we turn a blind eye to the worst of humanity. Obama said that we are living in one of the most peaceful times in world history. That doesn’t just happen. The Pax Americana made that possible.

    3. It would be ok if the US only gave the Kurds lightly armored vehicles (e.g. MRAP), small arms, and COIN aircraft or helicopters. That is all they need to fight ISIS and it still leaves Turkey with the upper hand in terms of weapons.

  4. Regarding militarized police departments, nobody is forcing the local cops to take all of this stuff. Rather, the same sort of local governments that Cliven Bundy worship are asking for this stuff and filling out grants to get it.

    Regarding the silence of the Right – how many Fox News reporters are getting arrested? If you look at Fox, there are riots in Ferguson, formulated by the Black Panthers.

    1. ” Regarding the silence of the Right – how many Fox News reporters are getting arrested? If you look at Fox, there are riots in Ferguson, formulated by the Black Panthers.”

      Reporters need to get arrested to have street cared with you? That’s a little crazy. I don’t watch Fox all the time but from what I have seen, they are not saying the riots are being caused by Black Panthers. Incidentally, no one should be happy the New Black Panthers are there. They are an outright racist organization who advocate violence against non-blacks.

  5. Another idea: police can have and use a type of equipment only if John Q. Public can buy and keep the same type.

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