The Glade 4.0

In all seriousness, though, apparently 90 of the largest 100 US cities (meaning a lot of places with as few as 2-300k residents) now have at least one of these things, and even small towns like Keene, NH (population 23,000) are buying them. Why don't the guys who get off on this **** just join the military instead of militarizing their local police department?

You're an intelligent person RD, why don't they?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Because they all came from the military first, then went PD.

Duh.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Aren't these being funded by the federal government under the homeland security budget?

I thought I read something about that...

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In time, this too shall pass.

The reason they get equipment like this is because of the sort of "you didn't do everything possible!" freakout that does happen every time there's a VA Tech or Sandy Brook type incident.

The police are not becoming more "militarized" except in the fantasies of people like Andrew Sullican who think 90 or so trucks represent some sort of "industrial complex. Wearing outer armor carriers and having helmets available isn't "militarization". Purchases of equipment like this have nothing to do with anyone "getting off" on anything either. The need to sexualize every purchase of weapons or equipment by the military speaks to the immaturity and unwillingness of opponents to understand what these things are used for and why they are selected (regardless of whether that selection is well-advised). The people that "get off" on equipment can be found trolling internet message boards still demanding the return of the battleships, not deciding if a town in New Hampshire needs a Bearcat.

That said, no, they don't need the silly Bearcat, and its a total waste of money. It doesn't help their case that they insist on referring to it as a "tank"; its no more a tank than the armored car that shows up to collect the till at the local gas station, and doesn't represent "militarization" any more than the armored cars mean Wells Fargo is a mercenary force. But, the PD is buying trouble by calling it a tank. It's no different than the press referring to destroyers or battleships, or the imaginary controversy surrounding the Bradley IFV pre-Desert Storm, calling it a shitty tank. Yes, it was a shitty tank because it wasn't a tank at all. Duh. But it made for good controversy on slow news nights. In this case, the chief of police is generating controversy he doesn't need by stupidly calling a relatively pathetic armored car a tank.

The Bearcat isn't really well suited for military operations anyhow. It does have a military version, but military users are invariably security and guard forces, such as the Marince Corps Security Forces Regiment and Global Strike Command who are.. responsible for guarding nuclear weapons. You won't find this thing roving the Afghani countryside any time soon.



Some did, some didn't. It's also irrelevant.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

'

Except that it has an effect on mentality.


As to, "the police aren't becoming militarized." That's laughable.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

You don't think there's been a significant increase in the use of SWAT-style tactics and equipment over the last 30-40 years (basically since the rise of the drug war in the 80s and 90s)? Or do you just not think "militarized" is a fair characterization of such tactics/equipment? As for whether there's a growing "police industrial complex" of government money, political lobbyists, military/police collaboration and industry contractors for all this stuff, here's one recent article arguing that there is.

Duh. People's experiences affect their mentality. Generalized suspicions and stereotypes of what that mentality might be are pretty much unimportant, however.



What's laughable is what people think constitutes "militarizing" the police. It's based entirely on the superficial. If anything, we've tried to force our military to be a police force and a military at the same time for 2 other countries for 10+ years, and now we have a military that has largely forgotten how to engage in major combat.

The Marine Corps is having to re-learn to be the Marine Corps and doing it in conjunction with Japan. Note that this, hilariously, is about strengthening Japan's amphibious attack capability, even though it's supposed to be their "Self-Defense Force".

The above article is 2 weeks old or so, but the exercise is now underway.

There's also the amusement of Japan invading California 70 years too late!

Either way, the police are not being meaningfully "militarized" in this country aside from certain superficial equipment similarities. The comparison of SWAT to military room-clearing tactics is the most off-base one; Military teams wanting to capture people use SWAT tactics, not the reverse. Military tactics involve lots of frag-grenades and killing everyone, or else lining up Bradelys and launching TOWs at the entire building, as Saddam's sons found out.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."