Rand Paul: "We must demilitarize the police"

[Deleted]

Its becoming everyday policing more and more....any excuse to break out the new toys

Examples??? How are your every day interactions with the police becoming more militarized? 19 years of this and its the same shit as it was back in 1995 when I started. Only new thing is the Taser

[Deleted]

Its becoming everyday policing more and more....any excuse to break out the new toys

Every day how??? Excluding swat...how???

[Deleted]

Yep, just about everytime i turn on the news now, given any incident in the area...a nice shiney MRAP with dudes decked out for war walking around the streets...

That's not the militarization of the police... that's a specialized response to a barricaded criminal.. been that way for years.

[TXDMERC73]

That's not the militarization of the police... that's a specialized response to a barricaded criminal.. been that way for years.

how is it that a barricaded criminal needs to be met with "militarized police force"? does every barricaded criminal have full auto weapons ,bombs, assault rifles?

SWAT should only be called if police are taking gunfire not from a barricaded criminal with a butter knife.

[Carson]

how is it that a barricaded criminal needs to be met with "militarized police force"? does every barricaded criminal have full auto weapons ,bombs, assault rifles?

SWAT should only be called if police are taking gunfire not from a barricaded criminal with a butter knife.

You try to get ahead of the situation, before you take gunfire. Never good to play catch up.

So all of the barricades you witnessed involved butter knives?

[Svickstc]

That's not the militarization of the police... that's a specialized response to a barricaded criminal.. been that way for years.

So a barricaded criminal should be met with a utility vehicle that came out of Afghan war in response to IED attacks?

I think you were the same cop i had a conversation with about not being able to think of ONE, ONE example that these types of vehicles are justified on USA streets...

Thomas Jefferson said "Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem"

loosely translated too, I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery

[Carson]

even if we demilitarize police, governors will declare martial law and release even more dangerous national guardsmen with tanks ,antiaircraft guns and .50 cal BMG mounted on humvees.

no matter what we try to do the govt will always improvise in controlling the masses.

How do you suggest controlling the unlawful civil unrest, looting, stealing, shooting at helicopters?

The books that I have read suggest a heavy, overwhelming force.

A protest, march, show of support is fine. But when the line is crossed why do property owners, business owners, regular citizens of the town have to put up with the illegal actions destroying their businesses, homes, etc ?

[Svickstc]

How do you suggest controlling the unlawful civil unrest, looting, stealing, shooting at helicopters?

The books that I have read suggest a heavy, overwhelming force.

A protest, march, show of support is fine. But when the line is crossed why do property owners, business owners, regular citizens of the town have to put up with the illegal actions destroying their businesses, homes, etc ?

Then bring in the national guard if things are that out of hand...and stop turning our local authorities into one..

[Metz]

Examples??? How are your every day interactions with the police becoming more militarized? 19 years of this and its the same shit as it was back in 1995 when I started. Only new thing is the Taser

The vast majority of posts in lounge, that are related to police shootings or wrongdoings (breaking into wrong homes, throwing grenade into infant's crib etc) involve heavily armored SWAT, executing arrest warrant against petty criminal. Something, that couple of uniforms did back in my days (I started service1992).

[LutherJackson]

I can understand bigger cities needing these types of vehicles. Cities like Pittsburgh, Philly, Chester, etc. When you see towns like Abington (which I've never seen any type of military vehicle) Warminster, Jamison, etc, then it gets a little bit out of hand. If I remember correctly, I was under the impression that SWAT teams out in this area were comprised of members of several different local forces, and each department did not have a SWAT team. I always assumed that they got a call and suited up when something big was happening.

I've lived in Abington for 6 years, and have never seen or heard of any military type behavior from the department.
I lived in Warminster for 23 years, and only remember a handful of occasions of SWAT activity.

I believe that the police are very necessary, and sometimes when the police bashing starts, it makes me mad. Not all police are out to grab our guns, take our rights away, or wrongfully arrest us. There are some meat heads, sure, but they could be weeded out if they get too many complaints.

We should really be more worried about the potential dick bags like Tom Wolf, or that judge that just ruled assault rifles as bad. They are the people that pull the strings, and will only use the police/ federal agencies as their tools if they get their way.