Yep.
A lot of them can certainly get rid of the Nazi uniforms.
Rand just touches the surface of what’s happening.
NOAA, the Department of Agriculture, Commerce and EPA all have their own SWAT teams.
Remember those big quantity 9 MM and .40 cal buys by our federal government ?
Yes indeed !!!
I agree.
No bigger threat to our freedom exists than the presence of an overzealous military police state. Their job should be simply to serve and protect the public and enforce laws. Instead they use any perception of threat to their own safety to take out civilians or dogs.
Hey it’s a fine line but my beliefs on this changed enough in the past couple years to feel uncomfortable with putting military hardware in the hands of local police, and I agree with Rand Paul. SWAT teams should be rarely deployed.
Too many police actions are taking on the role similar to a military combat action where the citizens are an expendable enemy. This has evolved in a manner that is not good for America.
duh alert
I don’t think the cops in Ferguson were in riot gear until the riots and looting started.
Runt Paul is busy pandering for votes he will never get.
Would it be better if towns such as this had their own individual police departments, comprised primarily of people who lived there?
Gee ya think? Patriot Act killed a Nation. After that passed the Feds gave MAJOR grants (in the ludicrous name of ‘fighting terrorism’) to States to help them militarize the police.
We are in BIG trouble. It may indeed be too late.
I agree with the sentiment in the headline, however, I don’t like the fact that Paul just accepts the witness’ story without any confirmation, and then goes and writes a story for Time magazine about it.
It smacks of pandering for “moderate” votes in his unannounced presidential campaign.
Push back on Obama, didn’t he say he would have some kind of civilian force domestically to rival the US military?
This is informative and touching. It makes me uncomfortable using the term “militarization”:
http://www.theagitator.com/2010/05/14/more-militarized-than-the-military/
who gave the police the weapons?
class?
did they buy it?
Easter bunny leave them?
Tooth fairy? well maybe a fairy, but not the tooth one.
I agree with you-the towns here are policed by the county sheriff, and it works-no pretty toys or political agendas to harass people with.
Me too.
Every thinking citizen needs to lobby their City/County governments to REDUCE POLICE BUDGETS.
It's the only way to bring these guys under control.
At most they need to be 1/2 of what the are today.
After all, we DO have a 2nd Amendment and our founders would be aghast when a town of 8,500 can have a 12 man SWAT team with automatic weapons and a sniper and a M113 APC.
That is NOT civilian policing.
Also, at the state level, be sure you are active in the repeal of no-knock warrants. There is NEVER a good reason to use them short of a terrorist and nuke.
We on the Right bear large responsibility for this "Standing Army" and it's up to us to dismantle it.
Police of which I am aware carry a pistol and have a shotgun in the trunk of the patrol car. Back at the station house there is an arms room with additional weapons, tear gas canisters, etc. They now wear flack jackets - hardly a military unit.
Most gangs have police outgunned.
Wait, what? Rand said something that’s not off the wall and I agree with? Where’s my calendar, I gotta mark this down.
This is a red herring. The police did not go into Military mode until well after the shooting. It wasn’t until the good citizens of Ferguson took it upon themselves to burn the town to the ground that the police donned their riot gear.
Rand Paul is just trying to pander to the Black voters like he has been trying to pander to the illegal alien voters.
Everything he has been saying lately is STUPID.