"America is a War Zone"

[Codename Section]

We've covered the militarization of the police but these quotes from the Sheriff got me, they admit they believe (in spite of our all time low crime rates) that they are at war with us.

http://reason.com/blog/2014/06/10/whys-this-sheriff-need-an-mrap-because-t

Ah, theHeartland. Amber waves of grain, apple pie, and mine-resistantambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles. After all, assures (http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2014/06/07/police-officer-safety-surplus-zeal-military-equipment-spurs-debate-mrap-military-vehicle/10170225/) Pulaski County Sheriff Michael Gayer, "the UnitedStates of America has become a war zone."


In case you couldn't hear him over all that shelling, thesheriff of a safe (http://recordspedia.com/Indiana/Pulaski-County/Crime-Statistics),rural, 13,000-person county needs a 60,000-lbs vehicle designed toweather asymmetrical attacks inflicted by Iraqis with roadsidebombs because "it's a lot more intimidating than a Dodge." That'swhat protecting and serving is all about, right? Gayer goes on:

There's violence in the workplace, there's violence in schoolsand there's violence in the streets. You are seeing policedepartments going to a semi-military format because of the threatswe have to counteract. If driving a military vehicle is going toprotect officers, then that's what I'm going to do.

Or, as the Indianapolis Star explains,"agencies with small budgets [are] turning to military surplusequipment to take advantage of bargains" on things like MRAPs,which proved to be too top heavy (http://reason.com/blog/2013/09/19/ohio-state-university-gets-armored-milit) for the mountainous terrain in Afghanistan, andare now being sold cheaply or scrapped. That makes a little moresense, since violent crime in the U.S. has dropped to a 40-year low (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2014/0219/FBI-reports-a-drop-in-crime-in-2013-why-the-rate-continues-to-fall).

[Codename Section]

Crime rates: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2014/0219/FBI-reports-a-drop-in-crime-in-2013-why-the-rate-continues-to-fall


CHICAGO — Overall reported crime was down in the first half of last year, according to new federal data from more than 270 cities that show declines in all categories except rape.

The overall decline follows a national trend that is 10 years in the making, says Tod Burke, a criminologist at Radford University in Radford, Va. “The trend is downward. This is all good news,” he says.


The Federal Bureau of Investigation (http://www.fbi.gov/news/news_blog/preliminary-six-month-crime-stats-for-2013-released?utm_source=-&utm_medium=-) reported Tuesday that homicides dropped nearly 7 percent in the first half of 2013, compared with the same period a year earlier. Violent crime fell 5 percent. The greatest drop in homicides, 14.5 percent, took place in the Northeast, but other regions also reported a falloff in homicide rates: the West (6.9 percent), South (5.4 percent) and Midwest (4.3 percent).

[Peter1469]

And mass shooting are down.

[Mr. Freeze]

The United States is a war zone and we're all potentially Al Qaeda. Makes sense. They have a right to do whatever they want to with us because we're potential terrorists.

[del]

why does it surprise anyone that a police force increasingly made up of ex-military acts like an occupying army rather than public servants?

[Mr. Freeze]

why does it surprise anyone that a police force increasingly made up of ex-military acts like an occupying army rather than public servants?

Does it surprise you that when the government gives them free military equipment for collars and guilty verdicts that they will go after poor people hard for drugs?

[del]

Does it surprise you that when the government gives them free military equipment for collars and guilty verdicts that they will go after poor people hard for drugs?

not particularly

should it?