Well, this is a good start:
CAMDEN, N.J. — President Obama on Monday banned the federal provision of some types of military-style equipment to local police departments and sharply restricted the availability of others.
The ban is part of Mr. Obama’s push to ease tensions between law enforcement and minority communities in reaction to the crises in Baltimore; Ferguson, Mo.; and other cities.
I’m old enough to remember when it was startling to see cops wearing combat gear and carrying military-style rifles. Those days are gone.
But making the police force look less like an occupying army is a small step in the right direction. Now we need to figure out how to train cops to act less like an occupying force dealing with hostiles.
scav
We all read that the other way, didn’t we?
Elizabelle
I meant to watch that speech. From Camden? Maybe C-Span has it.
Good to know. Police are meant to be guardians of the community, “protect and serve.”
Not warriors, not an occupying force, not “search and destroy.”
The Obama administration can do a lot of good on this issue.
Elizabelle
@scav: Going commando? Tee hee.
lamh36
So @POTUS is officially a twitter handle. I’ll assume maybe it’ll be handed down from POTUS to POTUS?
Something for you all to love. Bill Clinton tweeted @POTUS and the response I’m sure ya’ll will love.
https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/600407380279566336
Valdivia
@Elizabelle:
lol, I thought of that too.
catclub
Only slightly OT: Misunderstood white guy, not scary murderer-terrorist wanna-be.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/robert-doggart-islamberg-plot
scav
@lamh36: They’ve still got the quick ones, don’t they.
lamh36
ETA: I can still remember the picture of him in a closet with military guns drawn
Gin & Tonic
@catclub: I’m trying to wrap my head around what could possibly be threatening to anyone, even a lunatic, in Hancock. I’ve been there (a friend has a vacation place there) and it’s the middle of fucking nowhere, with a population of like 1,000.
Betty Cracker
@lamh36: Saw that story on another site. He grew up to be a handsome young man!
Valdivia
@lamh36:
that was such a funny exchange.
lol
Of course, the police have never needed military gear to suppress local minority populations.
lamh36
@Betty Cracker: Was just adding that I vividly remember that picture of him in the closet in a family members armed with military guns pointed towards them..
Wow
opium4themasses
Obviously, this all a part of the plan to disarm America so Jade Helm 16 will be able to conquer the US. They almost did it this year, but Greg Abbott was too wily. After the liberal media discredited him, Abbott may be too gun shy next year.
Betty Cracker
@lamh36: For years afterward in Tampa there was a billboard with that picture on it. Some folks weren’t happy that the kid was sent back to his dad, but sanity prevailed. Seems like the kid turned out okay.
lamh36
@Betty Cracker: seems like.
So I wonder what gonna happen if his wish is granted? Would be interesting with the current immigration “debates” going on her now
scav
@lamh36: But’s it’s only a visit as a tourist no, so not especially relevant.
Roger Moore
@lamh36:
That Obama character certainly is a sharp one.
Cacti
I’m only in my late 30s, and I remember when SWAT teams, and tactical gear/vehicles were pretty much limited to major urban or metropolitan police departments.
Now, any town with more than 25,000 people has a SWAT team, and towns as small as 8,000-10,000 people have MRAPs and Humvees acquired through the DoD.
Roger Moore
@Gin & Tonic:
Any community can be home to a scary crazy person. I never thought of my home town as being a scary place growing up, but that didn’t stop a nut from taking a bunch of people hostage. I don’t know that having a SWAT team helped the situation any, but I can understand why some people thought it was good to have one.
lamh36
Hmmm…alot of things get thrown around in custody fights, but if I recall, wasn’t Bill O alleged to have tried to get the PD to investigate his ex-wife’s then boyfriend and there was also the story about him trying to get her ex-communicated from the Catholic church…
Either way, just another thing to add to Bill O’Reilly is a jackass file, as if we really needed another?
Bill O’Reilly Accused of Domestic Violence in Custody Battle
srv
Yesterday Ramadi, Today Camden.
There are a lot of cities to abandon.
Davebo
Off topic but this is going to be a big problem for Obama/Clinton.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-u-s-released-thousands-of-immigrant-felons-last-year/
max
But making the police force look less like an occupying army is a small step in the right direction.
Basically they’ve barred sales of actual tanks and greater than 50 caliber machine guns. So that’s something.
max
[‘The MRAPs by themselves don’t bother me, but the full machine guns bug me still.’]
Mandalay
Completely O/T, but the right wing Conservative Party, which decisively won the British election a couple of weeks ago, is revealing its priority:
Kinda sad to realize that the Democratic Party here is way to the right of the Conservatives in Britain.
Sly
Pffft. Black men just need to be better fathers and husbands, just like Bill O’Reilly says.
dedc79
Good. We don’t want the texas cops to be able to join the armed resistance when the army invades that hostile territory.
chopper
@Davebo:
clearly a group without an agenda. i’ll wait to see if it actually pans out first.
JPL
@Sly: Huffington and Mediate haven’t reported the Gawker story, and if they don’t, it will be gone tomorrow.
iokiyr
Tripod
Maybe dialing down the drug war and sane gun control measures would alleviate much of the need for tactical teams.
Howard Beale IV
Now some of these cops are pissed they won’t have further access to grenade launchers and bayonets. WTF?
lamh36
Ok, so I see lotsa of people tweeting @POTUS, do they NOT realize that EVERY tweet to this account is being archived?
I mean I noticed this when I saw @POTUS first tweet. It say so on the page.
Reading this Gawker post made me LMAO at people really seem NOT to understand how the internet works sometimes.
The White House Is Archiving Every Tweet Begging @POTUS for Sex
SpotWeld
Every time I hear about a police dept. that is so very proud of its MRAP or up-armored transport vehicle, I just can’t help but think … “what joker is getting stuck with the job of driving and maintaining that White Elephant”
Somewhere in every Police Dept. or Sheriff’s Office there’s a top guy who *love* his special operations units. The ones he likes to show off with all their toys.
But when it comes down to the budget, some guy at the bottom of the ladder is told to make sure it’s all shiny, but don’t spend a dime more than necessary on those patrol cars.
(I’ll hold back on my criticism for towns with rugged terrain, flooding, or heavy snows where a military grade vehicle is somewhat needed for search and rescue or similar)
Davebo
@chopper:
The group is irrelevant. DOJ’s new FIFO policy is just beginning to cause ripples but there is a tidal wave there.
You can discount CIS but when the word spread’s of Holder’s FIFO policy people are, rightly, going to be pretty angry.
debbie
@lamh36:
Hope they get that knock on the door.
Baud
@lamh36:
@FEMAcamps
lamh36
@debbie: Gawker is mostly focusing on the sexual tweets, but still, it amazes me how some of the same people who distrust gov’t and such are so quick to post and say and do stuff online, all willy nily…especially young people who are supposed to be more internet saavy?
different-church-lady
@Mandalay: The Brits have a loooooooooooooooong head start on us in regards to a sane approach to health care.
shell
@Betty Cracker: And he’s engaged!
Poopyman
@lamh36: Uh huh! Maybe that’s why Bill was interested in the account “for a friend”.
debbie
@lamh36:
This reminds me of one of my brothers who, when a little kid, would stand behind a rail post fence and because he couldn’t see my mom standing at the back door, he figured she couldn’t see him. Clever is as clever does.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: Your brother is a ravenous bugblatter beast of Traal? The holidays must be interesting.
Ultraviolet Thunder
There’s that number again.
Germy Shoemangler
Inside Amy Schumer: Babies & Bustiers
jl
Probably another plot by the nefarious Obama to disarm the US so those people can take over. And there are many many ‘those people’ waiting in the wings. Too many to count.
Maybe the well armed patriotic Texas biker gangs can keep us safe.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Didn’t you just have like 9 feet of snow? That cannon might come in useful.
Just Some Fuckhead
Now put cops in those ugly little compacts with the baby wail siren.
Monkeyfister
One thing is unclear to me.
Do they have to give back what has already been provided?
If not, isn’t the toothpaste already out of the tube?
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus: Just be sure to know where your towel is.
chopper
@efgoldman:
how else do you deal with errant yetis when on a snowy search and rescue operation?
justawriter
It’s all Robert Urich’s fault
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072560/?ref_=nv_sr_3
Of course, 40 years ago these guys needed to be specially trained. Now its 10 weeks at a community college. Barney Fife would take away most of these guy’s bullets. (if you got the references, you’re old too)
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: That’s why you need the bayonets.
bemused
Waco PD issued Officer Safety Alert that biker gangs ordered to kill “anyone in uniform”.
Today Texas lawmakers had hearing on bill to allow licensed open carry in public. Austin Asst Police Chief said open carry would have complicated efforts of law enforcement in Waco biker violence.
Ruckus
@SpotWeld:
Most departments that have rough terrain or lots of snow have had some vehicles suited for that for decades. A decent civilian 4×4 does that. What the police departments want is an armored vehicle and some want heavy firepower, like .50 cal automatic machine guns, for crowd control I imagine.