(February 24, 2019 at 10:39 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: And those things are running around town all the time? Are those running traffic stops? Doing crossing guard duty? How many of them are on the streets?

I take you back to the Texas Tower mass shooting. The cops didn't have hard vehicles and had to borrow Brinks' armored cars to get shooting victims off the lawn below the tower. Better to have something and not need it than to need it and not have it.

I'm not necessarily against the militarization of police. But tanks are military vehicles, and police have them. They are, in fact, militarizing.

(February 25, 2019 at 12:36 am)Gae Bolga Wrote: Are we being invaded Jim?  

-Depends, is there one tank or two?

Couldn't help myself, lol.  OFC it's better to have something and not need it than the other way around.  That doesn't change that the effect of this broad acquisition philosophy has been the militarization of the police force.  The psychology to match follows.  If what the police need to do their job are the tools (both physical and mental) of an occupying army, then they are an occupying army.

Define "militarized", please.

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(February 25, 2019 at 1:49 am)bennyboy Wrote:

(February 24, 2019 at 10:39 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: And those things are running around town all the time? Are those running traffic stops? Doing crossing guard duty? How many of them are on the streets?

I take you back to the Texas Tower mass shooting. The cops didn't have hard vehicles and had to borrow Brinks' armored cars to get shooting victims off the lawn below the tower. Better to have something and not need it than to need it and not have it.

I'm not necessarily against the militarization of police.  But tanks are military vehicles, and police have them.  They are, in fact, militarizing.

The cops wear kevlar. Does that make them tanks?

(February 25, 2019 at 8:15 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: The cops wear kevlar. Does that make them tanks?

No, tanks are tanks, and police forces own them. Tanks are military vehicles, clearly, and if the police own them, they have militarized.

I'm not sure even what the contradiction here is. Do you not know what some of these words mean or something?

(February 25, 2019 at 7:51 pm)bennyboy Wrote:

(February 25, 2019 at 8:15 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: The cops wear kevlar. Does that make them tanks?

No, tanks are tanks, and police forces own them.  Tanks are military vehicles, clearly, and if the police own them, they have militarized.

I'm not sure even what the contradiction here is.  Do you not know what some of these words mean or something?

You don't know what a tank is, I see. And you're using a word you can't define. You don't see that as a problem.