America 'Has Become a War Zone' 875
An anonymous reader writes, quoting Business Insider: "Eight different law enforcement agencies in Indiana have purchased massive Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP) that were formerly used in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mark Alesia reports for the Indy Star. Pulaski County, home to 13,124 people, is one of the counties that have purchased an 55,000 pound, six-wheeled patrol vehicles, from military surplus. When asked to justify the purchase of a former military vehicle, Pulaski County Sheriff Michael Gayer told the Indy Star: "The United States of America has become a war zone."'
Re:War of government against people? (Score:5, Informative)
the police don't actually have to protect the citizens.
this is worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
it is also worth noting that the US is safer now than ever before.
on the other hand, the real deal is there are a surplus of military equipment that can be useful in all kinds of scenarios. the high clearance of an RG33 would be good in a flood, and good for active-shooter scenarios. might as well snap them up if the price is good.
You'll have to forgive Sheiff Gayer (Score:5, Informative)
You'll have to forgive Sheriff Gayer, after all it must feel like a warzone when you spend all you're available time and money engaged in the war on drugs because it's so damn profitable for the cops.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/... [pbs.org]
The numbers are only worse now. States like Minesota that are average size take in around 8 million dollars and almost every penny of that money is given right back to the cops.
Just read their stats - nothing that needed this (Score:5, Informative)
Just read the statistics for the sheriffs department involved. [jocosheriff.org] 133 "crimes against persons" so far this year. But that includes a lot of bad checks, which they list as a crime against a person. It also includes telephone harassment, and "criminal threats". Some assaults, some rapes. No murders. About 63 drug offenses, mostly from traffic stops. Nothing for which an armored vehicle would be useful. It looks like a cop shop that has some real business maybe a few times a day.
They don't need an MRAP. They need a collection agency for the bad checks and a social worker for the domestic disturbances.
Re:War of government against people? (Score:5, Informative)
The Feds used one when they burned some 50 women and children to death in Waco.
crime rates (Score:5, Informative)
Violent Crime rates are the lowest they've been for decades: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi... [wikimedia.org]
Yet "Justifiable Homicide" by the police when attacked has almost doubled: http://tacreports.org/storage/... [tacreports.org]
(i.e. their response is more violent)
While the number of citizens killed by police in general has remained the same despite the reduction in violent crime.
Police murdered while on duty is at a 50yr low, so it's not like they are in some new mortal danger.
https://www.techdirt.com/artic... [techdirt.com]
Re:Absolutely disgusting (Score:5, Informative)
An example: Saskatoon(pop ~260k) has a murder rate than NYC(pop ~8.4m).
You seem to be missing a word from this sentence. Might it perhaps be "lower"? Because it's the only one that would be factual.
In 2013, according to the Saskatoon Police Service's crime map, Saskatoon had a total of 4 homicides (Which occurred on January 1, July 11, August 20, and August 30). That's a rate of 1.80/100k (city population is 222k. 260k is the census metropolitan area, which includes bedroom communities, which aren't part of Saskatoon's crime stats)
In 2013, NYC had 333 homicides. That's a rate of 3.96/100k.
I'm fairly sure that 1.8<3.96
Re:War of government against people? (Score:4, Informative)
How about pay raises. It's a crime what they pay police officers. They practically guarantee corruption. I don't see how those guys live on what they pay which explains why they're always moonlighting at 2nd and 3rd jobs.
In Atlanta I would have gone in making $45,000 a year base pay had I gotten a job with APD (I have a graduate degree). The job I do right now I am making $27000 a year and tops out around $50,000 a year. Yeah, it sure is a crime how little they pay police officers.
Re:War of government against people? (Score:5, Informative)
USA is still pretty shit with a homicide rate of 5.2 per 100,000.
It's second-equal with Chile, beaten only by Mexico in the OECD countries.
The unsolved murder rate is pretty shit too.
Re:What about escalation? (Score:3, Informative)
Wanna get Capone? Here's how you get him.
Call the IRS
Re:War of government against people? (Score:5, Informative)
Canada?
Is that the country with strict gun laws that just had a mass shooting [ctvnews.ca] where the killer was at large for several days?
But no, such an event in a country with strict gun laws doesn't fit the narrative you want to hear, now does it?
Canada? The country with 1/4 the firearm related death rate and 1/7 the firearm related homicide rate as the USA? Is that the narrative you were looking for? Obviously they need more guns up there for self defense against mass killers.
Re:education (Score:5, Informative)
Re:War of government against people? (Score:3, Informative)
It depends how it is measured.
If you take polls relying on self reporting, then yes, the numbers are slightly declining.
If you take the number of NICS background checks then the numbers are up.
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.c... [thetruthaboutguns.com]
Most states have no registration at all. I can buy or sell a gun to another private citizen I don't have to tell anyone, as long as it's not an NFA item. I can even mill out my own un-serialized rifle that no-one knows about (talked about in a previous /. article on 3d printed guns)
Even the number of NFA classified items (machine-guns, suppressors, etc) are up.
http://www.businessinsider.com... [businessinsider.com]
If only 1 in 5 of the NICS checks resulted in a sale, then gun sales from stores alone outpaced the us population increase.
The gun industry actually sailed through the recessions like they never happened, and gun-industry jobs grew like 30%. People will be retiring off the money they make selling ammo with crazy markups.
My state's concealed carry program has been off tha hook as the kids say.
Re:War of government against people? (Score:5, Informative)
It is entirely possible to have a scenario where some factor is driving crime down faster than gun ownership is driving it up. The fact that it hasn't been found...
It may have been found. There is a remarkably close correlation to the reduction of lead in gasoline to the reduction in violent crime. The downward trend in violent crime follows after lead is banned, and it follows the ban consistently even when the ban occurs at different times in different places with otherwise similar cultures and economic conditions. Nobody has traced the biochemical pathways yet, but it's the best candidate discovered in many years.
Re:War of government against people? (Score:4, Informative)
it is actually a bit a stretch.
1st thing, the US is actually not that bad. with 4.8 murders per 100k people, we are no-where near the bad part of town.
on the other hand, here are the top 5, from data in this 2012 report.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cj... [fbi.gov]
city and m/100k
detroit 54.58
baltimore 35.01
philadelphia 21.50
memphis 20.23
chicago 18.48
subtracting the population and murders from the US, and the US moves to around 4.1. removing DC and we move to 4.09.
cities containing 2% of the US population account for 11% of the murders.