Police expect Trump to lift limits on access to surplus military gear, like grenade launchers...

[ScienceRocks]

Police expect Trump to lift limits on access to surplus military gear, like grenade launchers...
Source: Business Insider

If president-elect Donald Trump keeps his promise, surplus military grenade launchers, bayonets, tracked armored vehicles and high-powered firearms and ammunition will once again be available to state and local U.S. police departments.

National police organizations say they'll hold Trump to that promise.

President Barack Obama issued an executive order restricting that access in 2015 amid an outcry over police use of armored vehicles and other war-fighting gear to confront protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Since then, federal officials have recalled more than 1,800 items, which have been destroyed through target practice or otherwise disposed of, officials say.

But state and local police organizations have protested, insisting that military-style vehicles and gear help protect officers' lives and public safety — for example, a privately manufactured, tracked armored vehicle played a key role in the police response to the mass shooting at a county government building in San Bernardino, California, in December 2015.

Read more: Police expect Trump to lift limits on access to surplus military gear, like grenade launchers and bayonets

I understand the need to keep up with the criminals but Grenades being used by our police against American citizens is probably going too far.

 

[defcon4]

I have a bayonet. It is a vintage WWI but nevertheless it is a bayonet. Where does that leave me?

 

[miketx]

I have a bayonet. It is a vintage WWI but nevertheless it is a bayonet. Where does that leave me?

Short.

 

[occupied]

Sigh, at least fascists are easy to predict.

 

[ColonelAngus]

If you don't break the law, you have not much need to worry about this.

 

[Wry Catcher]

I have a bayonet. It is a vintage WWI but nevertheless it is a bayonet. Where does that leave me?

Holding a bayonet. I suggest you don't bring it to a gun fight.

 

[peabody]

At first I thought this said Trump would allow civilians to have grenade launchers

 

[Auld Phart]

Police expect Trump to lift limits on access to surplus military gear, like grenade launchers...
Source: Business Insider

If president-elect Donald Trump keeps his promise, surplus military grenade launchers, bayonets, tracked armored vehicles and high-powered firearms and ammunition will once again be available to state and local U.S. police departments.

National police organizations say they'll hold Trump to that promise.

President Barack Obama issued an executive order restricting that access in 2015 amid an outcry over police use of armored vehicles and other war-fighting gear to confront protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Since then, federal officials have recalled more than 1,800 items, which have been destroyed through target practice or otherwise disposed of, officials say.

But state and local police organizations have protested, insisting that military-style vehicles and gear help protect officers' lives and public safety — for example, a privately manufactured, tracked armored vehicle played a key role in the police response to the mass shooting at a county government building in San Bernardino, California, in December 2015.

Read more: Police expect Trump to lift limits on access to surplus military gear, like grenade launchers and bayonets

I understand the need to keep up with the criminals but Grenades being used by our police against American citizens is probably going too far.

but Grenades being used by our police against American citizens is probably going too far.

Yes, So much easier just walking up to the door of a drug house, and asking them to give up

 

[Mousterian]

If you don't break the law, you have not much need to worry about this.

Unless, of course, you're black...

 

[JakeStarkey]

If you don't break the law, you have not much need to worry about this.

Fascists and communists always say that.

 

[ColonelAngus]

Grenade Launchers could be useful against a barricaded suspect who won't give up.

 

[Fenton Lum]

The power structure knows full well that the continued economic cannibalization and redistribution of societal wealth by the substantial people will at some point devolve into social unrest and the masses will have to be subdued. Representative democracies do not behave like this; this is the stuff of inverted totalitarianism and authoritarianism. Trump did not initiate this, it’s been coming, and it is utterly bipartisan. Occupy, Ferguson, etc. are all dress rehearsals. The power structure rewards a corrupt “job creator” class and Wall Street with socialism, a privatized prison cell and convict leasing awaits the unsubstantial people once they see beyond the manufactured partisanshit and realize their new role in american society. And by “new” I merely mean new to them/us. We never much minded when it was someone else.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Police expect Trump to lift limits on access to surplus military gear, like grenade launchers...
Source: Business Insider

If president-elect Donald Trump keeps his promise, surplus military grenade launchers, bayonets, tracked armored vehicles and high-powered firearms and ammunition will once again be available to state and local U.S. police departments.

National police organizations say they'll hold Trump to that promise.

President Barack Obama issued an executive order restricting that access in 2015 amid an outcry over police use of armored vehicles and other war-fighting gear to confront protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Since then, federal officials have recalled more than 1,800 items, which have been destroyed through target practice or otherwise disposed of, officials say.

But state and local police organizations have protested, insisting that military-style vehicles and gear help protect officers' lives and public safety — for example, a privately manufactured, tracked armored vehicle played a key role in the police response to the mass shooting at a county government building in San Bernardino, California, in December 2015.

Read more: Police expect Trump to lift limits on access to surplus military gear, like grenade launchers and bayonets

I understand the need to keep up with the criminals but Grenades being used by our police against American citizens is probably going too far.

See:

 

[defcon4]

I have a bayonet. It is a vintage WWI but nevertheless it is a bayonet. Where does that leave me?

Short.

Fuck, those are like swords compered to the 7" blade of M9-s. Get out of here!

 

[miketx]

I have a bayonet. It is a vintage WWI but nevertheless it is a bayonet. Where does that leave me?

Short.

Fuck, those are like swords compered to the 7" blade of M9-s. Get out of here!

I have a spike bayonet on my Mosin.

 

[defcon4]

[

 

[defcon4]

I have a bayonet. It is a vintage WWI but nevertheless it is a bayonet. Where does that leave me?

Short.

Fuck, those are like swords compered to the 7" blade of M9-s. Get out of here!

I have a spike bayonet on my Mosin.

That's pretty lame. You cannot chop wood with it.

 

[mudwhistle]

Police expect Trump to lift limits on access to surplus military gear, like grenade launchers...
Source: Business Insider

If president-elect Donald Trump keeps his promise, surplus military grenade launchers, bayonets, tracked armored vehicles and high-powered firearms and ammunition will once again be available to state and local U.S. police departments.

National police organizations say they'll hold Trump to that promise.

President Barack Obama issued an executive order restricting that access in 2015 amid an outcry over police use of armored vehicles and other war-fighting gear to confront protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Since then, federal officials have recalled more than 1,800 items, which have been destroyed through target practice or otherwise disposed of, officials say.

But state and local police organizations have protested, insisting that military-style vehicles and gear help protect officers' lives and public safety — for example, a privately manufactured, tracked armored vehicle played a key role in the police response to the mass shooting at a county government building in San Bernardino, California, in December 2015.

Read more: Police expect Trump to lift limits on access to surplus military gear, like grenade launchers and bayonets

I understand the need to keep up with the criminals but Grenades being used by our police against American citizens is probably going too far.

I think cops should be driving around in armored vehicles with 50/cals and grenade launchers like I did when I was in SF.
It's the only way to stop these asshole thugs from assassinating them.

 

[MikeK]

I understand the need to keep up with the criminals but Grenades being used by our police against American citizens is probably going too far.

I would have no objection to our civilian police being trained with and having access to this type of equipment for use if it ever became genuinely necessary. But based on what we've seen since the development of Darryl Gates' S.W.A.T. Teams, which is the excessive and absolutely unnecessary use of this equipment, the reality is there are some cops who simply cannot be trusted to restrain their aggressive impulses and authoritarian fantasies.

Consider that civilian police agencies currently engage in more than one hundred early morning, "no-knock" break-in warrants every day, 365 days a year, all over the U.S., mostly involving suspicion of minor drug (victimless) offenses. Recently, during one of these raids a flash-bang grenade was tossed into the crib of a sleeping infant, blowing his face and chest apart. The purpose of that raid was suspicion of marijuana possession. No drugs of any kind were found.

Prior to the advent of S.W.A.T. and the War on Drugs there were less than 100 "no-knock" raids conducted in the U.S. annually. Now there are more than 100 a day -- and the number is rising. Now they want tanks, grenade launchers and who knows what else.

 

[MikeK]

Grenade Launchers could be useful against a barricaded suspect who won't give up.

True. But give it a little time and they will be shooting grenades into the windows of cars that contain suspected marijuana dealers or prostitutes.

And I'm not joking.