The militant attitude that is all consuming in today’s LE is scary. Police should not act like soldiers. Soldiers are trained to kill, period. They are trained to seek out an enemy and kill.
Dr. Strangelove said:
I'm glad to see others are seeing the same things I do, I'm tired of seeing the police "playing army". Black combat boots, fatigue pants, AR-15's and MP-5's? Come on now, quit playing special forces. There is no place in civilian police work for military weaponry, particularly not carried by individual officers on a daily basis. Then they wonder why they get no respect? Don't go around looking like some sort of death squad member.
You sound like an old time police administrator. Are you one? ROFL. Let's get some facts straight. Police have been wearing black combat boot for ages, long before I played the game. Fatigue pants go with the rest of the BDU outfit and are rarely worn by street police officers. Because SWAT teams and other special units get dirtier more frequently than them and it's expensive to dry clean regular uniforms they wear BDU's that can be tossed in the washer to get them clean. AR-15's? Perhaps you missed the North Holly Bank Robbery in Los Angeles that held hostage and terrorized the neighborhood because two crooks were wearing full body armor that stopped the handgun and shotgun rounds that was all the police officers had. They were armed with rifles firing fully automatic and hundreds of rounds of ammo. Officers were going to a local gun store and "borrowing" rifles to stop those crooks. Those crooks were finally stopped by the arrival of
SWAT team members who were on a training evolution and arrived as the suspects were fleeing.
Dr. Strangelove said:
Seems every little town has to have it's own "Swat" team, or whatever they want to call them.
Completely inaccurate. When you get some facts to back this up, let us know. Until then, I'll tell you from experience that FEW police departments in the grand scheme of things have a full SWAT team. They may have something similar to handle lower grade incidents but most departments will call the nearby larger department that has a full time team to handle bigger incidents. Police chiefs like to keep control of things within their own borders.
Dr. Strangelove said:
Is this really a good use of our tax dollars?
If you don't think so it's up to you to make your wishes known. Start writing to your local government officials protesting how they spend your tax dollars. If they agree, they’ll stop that sort of spending. But before you waste your time you should realize that they've authorized those expenditures long ago and most of them think it was money well spent. These days often it's FREE money from the Feds and they love to take it.
Dr. Strangelove said:
I think the police need to lay off the "Die Hard" movies and focus on real police work rather than playing with their toys at the gun range. Bradenton, FL, has a "Marine Response Unit", or some such nonsense. It's fun to watch them practice their "Navy Seal" rolls out of a souped up Zodiak raft into Tampa Bay. But what do they plan to do? Assault the beach? Commando attack? Looks like just another excuse to play with big boys' toys at taxpayer expense.
The fact is that police departments charged with enforcing the law in such areas need to be ready for whatever comes along. A good friend of mine is on the police dive team for a large and busy commercial/pleasure boating harbor. They dive every commercial boat that enters their jurisdiction, searching for explosives and drugs. Terrorists would love to stop shipping from moving in and out of it. It's impossible to stop all acts of terrorism, but it's stupid to stop trying.
Dr. Strangelove said:
Anyway, yes, I too am appalled by the recent changes in police appearance and tactics. I believe it encourages a similar ramp-up in weapons and violence by criminals.
Nonsense. Police officers in metropolitan areas did not start carrying rifles until AFTER the criminals did. The aforementioned North Hollywood Bank Robbery was the impetus for MANY departments to get them. Like an officer's holstered handgun they sit quietly in the rack until needed. Criminals were shooting each other with automatic weapons for ages before police got them. The move to semi-automatic handguns from revolvers happened because the crooks were using them, long before LE got them. You've REALLY got this backwards.
Dr. Strangelove said:
We're slowly losing or rights as citizens and becoming more of a police state every day...
I'll disagree but even if you were right, please give us some idea of how police officers wearing combat boots, BDU's and having AR-15's has something to do with this.
