Apparently the White House and others are surprised by the simple concept that if you give a bunch of domestic police forces heavy duty military equipment designed for war.... they'll USE IT.
Really? Now they're going to re-examine a policy we here and many in law enforcement saw as a bad direction long ago. LEOs need to be well equipped, but the end goal is still to keep the peace, not win a war. The mentality behind armored assault vehicles being kept by college police leads us down a very wrong, very dark path.
We now see it in Ferguson. It didn't cause the situation of course, but it showed how such tactics and mentality can quickly escalate a situation.
If it gets to the point we need armored vehicles and the like, it's time to call the National Guard anyway. sell all that surplus stuff to any allies who want it, recycle the rest or park them in the desert or something. Don't militarize domestic law enforcement.
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