Claire McCaskill: ‘We need to demilitarize’

Hamster Buddha said:

Yeah but, this is more about the perceived militarization of police forces, that's been going on long before this incident and will continue for some time afterwards. Race has little to do with that.

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The thread has gotten a bit off subject, hasn't it?

Now, is that "perceived" militarization real, and if so, is it necessary to counter increasingly militarized gangs fueled by drug money?

Fenton said:

Hard to sell that after what just happened in repsonse to the shooting in St Louis.

Rioters need to be stopped immediately, and it takes too long to organize the National Guard.

So Im all for equiping the first responders with what they need.

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Reminds me of Arlo Guthrie jumping up and down and the Group W Bench shouting KILL KILL KILL and then getting a medal for it. :doh:roll:

for those who have not had that distinct pleasure

And I waked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the psychiatrist, room 604." And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL." And I started jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and he started jumping up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the Sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."
Group W's where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers!

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Dittohead not! said:

The thread has gotten a bit off subject, hasn't it?

Now, is that "perceived" militarization real, and if so, is it necessary to counter increasingly militarized gangs fueled by drug money?

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RA put it best in my opinion; The militarization that is the problem isn't so much the gear that their using, but the tactics that they use to carry out. Take away military supplied gear, and you still have police storming into wrong houses, shooting dogs, flash banging babies and the like.

Dittohead not! said:

The thread has gotten a bit off subject, hasn't it?

Now, is that "perceived" militarization real, and if so, is it necessary to counter increasingly militarized gangs fueled by drug money?

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Heya DH. :2wave: Well, another Democrat heard Claire call out for this Demilitarization. So he says he will check into what Defense gives to Law Enforcement.

Although, Admiral Kirby defended the surplus transfers.



2.52pm ET
The Senate intends to review the program under which the Pentagon transfers military gear and weapons to local police departments, Guardian US national security editor Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) reports: Known as the 1033 program, the purpose of the transfers was to ensure police were able to withstand comparatively well-armed drug networks. Along with grant money provided by the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of 9/11, it has enabled police departments around the country to increasingly kit themselves like military units, even for routine policework.

“Congress established this program out of real concern that local law enforcement agencies were literally outgunned by drug criminals. We intended this equipment to keep police officers and their communities safe from heavily armed drug gangs and terrorist incidents. Before the defense authorization bill comes to the Senate floor, we will review this program to determine if equipment provided by the Defense Department is being used as intended,” Sen. Carl Levin, a retiring Michigan Democrat, said on Friday.....snip~

Ferguson protests: Michael Brown family calls for calm amid criticism of video release

It's both the gear and the mindset.

IN truth, a vast majority of Mr. Kelly’s 35,000-member force are not specialized troops, but rank-and-file beat cops. But that did not stop Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg from sounding like Patton at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last week, when he boasted, “I have my own army in the N.Y.P.D.,” suggesting his reasons for preferring City Hall to the White House. More disturbing than riot gear or heavy-duty weapons slung across the backs of American police officers is a “militaristic mind-set” creeping into officers’ approach to their jobs, said Timothy Lynch, director of the criminal justice project at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “It is in the way they search and raid homes and the way they deal with the public,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/s...police-become-militarized.html?pagewanted=all

Hamster Buddha said:

Yeah but, this is more about the perceived militarization of police forces, that's been going on long before this incident and will continue for some time afterwards. Race has little to do with that.

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Race has everything to do with it; you notice that the same people who are screaming for the "demilitarization" of the police are the same ones that wanted Cliven Bundy's ranch invaded by BLM rangers that were tooled up like the 2nd Armored Division.

apdst said:

Race has everything to do with it; you notice that the same people who are screaming for the "demilitarization" of the police are the same ones that wanted Cliven Bundy's ranch invaded by BLM rangers that were tooled up like the 2nd Armored Division.

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That's a false blanket statement. I personally was not in support of the heavy handedness in regards to Bundy's situation, and was glad they were backed up. However, I was no sympathiser of Bundy's.