This would be a lobbed soft ball to Forgie if he was still around. He would write pages.

Maybe if people fucking behaved the police would feel the need to roll up armored to the teeth. Just sayin.

ETA: I'm not for arming the local police into a small armed force, but I can understand their side of it.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

No bueno indeed. This is a step in the wrong direction.

What's point of armoring up when they stand by and watch as Antifa beats people in the streets.

Police inaction (in addition to a scared, crazy, idiot driver) is what got that chick killed in Charlottesville.

Our local police force has this...



Why? Our biggest crime problem here is public intoxication.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Yeah, this combined with Arpaio pardon (sorry, commutation, slowguy), his "not too nice" comments paints kind of a dark picture of what Trump thinks a police force should be.


Not subject to Federal laws limiting the role of civilian police. OK to rough people up prior to charging with a crime. OK to arm civilians with military gear.


Trump has kind of a dark vision of what the police should be.


But it's OK. They were only jack-booted thugs under Obama. Now they're the brave men and women protecting us from the scourge of antifa violence sweeping the nation.

Except they aren't protecting anyone from Antifa. They are just standing around watching as Antifa beats up people.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

You were right, it was Manning who had his/her sentence commuted.

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.

You had it right the first time. Arpaio was pardoned; Manning's sentence was commuted. There IS a meaningful difference with respect to the consequences. However, both executive actions send a terrible message to the public.

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''The enemy isn't conservatism. The enemy isn't liberalism. The enemy is bulls**t.''

—Lars-Erik Nelson

Gotta keep those drivers inline on PCH!

There is no PCH in Santa Barbara.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

But how can the police do their jobs without grenade launchers?

Why do you think Trump has a vision of *anything*? He is a pitchman, first and last. He'll push whatever he (at the moment) thinks will sell, to whomever he (at the moment) wants to buy.

He doesn't give a rat's ass about policy.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

I will never forget the story my dad (retired FBI agent) told me about responding to a bank robbery with local police. He was armed with his .38 revolver and level 1 ballistics vest, much like the local police. Three guys came out of the bank with fully automatic rifles and systematically destroyed the police vehicles and took out a couple cops.

Yep, no heavy equipment needed ...

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

If we're going to make it available to the general public, I think we ought to make it available for the police.

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''The enemy isn't conservatism. The enemy isn't liberalism. The enemy is bulls**t.''

—Lars-Erik Nelson

Exactly this is playing to his base again, just like the transgender military ban or the wall. He doesn't give a shit either way about any of this stuff, he's just going with what sells to those folks so he can "win".

Exactly. If we're OK with oceans of high capacity semiautomatic weapons, we have to expect law enforcement to protect themselves accordingly.

The crux of the issue isn't what equipment LE has access to, but how they deploy it.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

I will never forget the story my dad (retired FBI agent) told me about responding to a bank robbery with local police. He was armed with his .38 revolver and level 1 ballistics vest, much like the local police. Three guys came out of the bank with fully automatic rifles and systematically destroyed the police vehicles and took out a couple cops.

I agree that if the bad guys are armed to the gills then the cops do too.

However, what I find curious is that the solution is always an escalation in weapons, which doesn't seem to have worked too well. There doesn't seem to be a lot of questions about why grenade launchers are needed outside of a war zone, or why the bad guys or anyone else have access to the kind of weapons that require arming the police so much. The militarization of police is the obvious response to the out of control weapons available.

I don't want to get into another discussion about gun control, heaven forbid someone takes away your Constitutional right to a grenade launcher, but maybe that would be the place to start.

You don't have a Constitutional right to a grenade launcher.

Automatic weapons are highly regulated and virtually prohibited yet somehow the bad guys seem to get them ...

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

It seems that most departments have access to semi-automatic weapons and assorted "heavy equpiment". Are you saying that they don't?

So serious question... why don't you have a constitutional right to a grenade launcher? Isn't that just the thin edge of the wedge? Pretty soon only criminals will have grenade launchers!!! (Ok that last bit wasn't serious)

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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

Did you mean fully automatic? I'm sure they all have semi automatic and many have fully automatic. I hear them practicing there fully automatic at the range.

That's exactly what I am saying. Semi-auto pistols? Sure. But some departments do not have wide access to AR-type rifles, unless it is a SWAT team and most only receive semi rather than full auto.

As far as "heavy equipment," how many departments do you think have armored vehicles and Level 3 body armor? There have been multiple threads were people freaked out when cops received kevlar helmets and plate laden body armor saying they are being "militarized."

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

We have been through this. Like every other Constitutional Right, the Right to Bear Arms has limits. There is no Constitutional right to automatic weapons, short barrel rifles, and suppressed firearms. There are categories of weapons and Class 3 and destructive devices are regulated and either prohibited or nearly prohibited.

For the exactly the same reason you cannot yell "fire" in a crowded theater, there are limits on rights and, low and behold, it's pretty easy to understand and enforce.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Still, I agree with Duffy. The cues from Trump and the optics to this are all going the wrong way.
We have an obsession with "saving lives" in America, and the police are no different. They've discovered that if they kill potentially violent suspects sooner in an encounter (as opposed to later) those "dead police" statistics go down. Yeah.

Oh, and "To Protect and To Serve" too!