You can't demilitarize the police unless society is demilitarized. Watch one of the old cop shows

[doc03]

from the 60s Dragnet, Adam 12 etc. The cop's weapon of choice was a .38 caliber 6 round revolver and they carried a 12 ga. pump action shotgun in their cruiser. Today the cops have to go up against someone with a Glock semi auto that has carries 19 rounds or an AR-15 that carries 30 or more rounds. Back 50 years ago people owned a shotgun, a .22 rifle or maybe a high powered bolt action deer rifle that held maybe 3 to 5 rounds. Over the last 50 years we have been in an all out arms race. The Republicans think there
is no limit to the 2nd Amendment.

[msongs]

1. oddly enuff british cops get by unarmed for the most part except for specialty squads nt

[doc03]

3. Am I wrong but people in Britain are not armed to the teeth are they?

[marie999]

2. Did Joe Friday ever fire his pistol?

You gave me something to think about. Nothing in society is ever about only one thing.

[doc03]

5. I don't think Joe ever did but Pete and Jim did a good bit nt

[rsdsharp]

10. Yes, at least once.

In the 1960s version, Sgt. Friday walked in on a guy robbing washing machines in a laundromat. The thief fired on Friday, who returned fire. The details are fuzzy, but there was doubt that the thief had fired on Friday, and old Joe was in a fix. Then the lab guys found that the round had grazed the bottom of a shelf, lifting it and leaving what was taken as a carpenter’s mark, before being embedded in the wall and hidden by the shelf.

[marie999]

12. Thank you.

Yes, when I read your post I remembered that episode. I can actually remember the scene where the shelf is lifted.

[rsdsharp]

18. It may have happened in the 1950s version, as well.

Jack Webb was a notorious cheapskate, and he just reshot some of the scripts used in the 50s.

[doc03]

16. I remember that now LOL

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Not buying it

Cops get shot at so few times it makes the arsenals they have way overkill.When they know they're going to be dealing with heavily armed people they bring in the SWAT team, just like they did decades ago.

The training is a bigger problem though IMO, they use overwhelming force at the drop of a hat with several officers swarming people. It's incredibly dangerous for people who interact with the police. The police escalate things too quickly.

[doc03]

7. If a cop is out on patrol and comes up against an AR-15 what does he tell the bad guy to

hold on until he calls for back-up? Before the civilian arms race fired up by the Republicans and the NRA
cops didn't need to be armed to the teeth.

[Johnny2X2X]

11. Who says the cops have to outgun people?

They're fine with their side arms and a shotgun in the trunk. I don't really care if a police officer is outgunned once or twice in his career, I still don't think they need military gear.

And cops out on patrol don't have that stuff now. Do people think they have SWAT gear in their trunks?

[rsdsharp]

15. In the 1930s, cops came up against heavily armed

criminals who were using BARs and Thompson submachine guns. Cops armed themselves similarly. The .38 Super and .357 magnum rounds were also developed as a means for small arms to pierce engine blocks

[genxlib]

8. I think you have to look at the Second Amendment as a reason for why that happens

The police escalate things too quickly and use overwhelming force because they have come to think that every citizen is a potential threat to them. If you go into every interaction with an assumption that the person is armed, it changes the way you react.

[doc03]

27. Years ago I worked with the son of a small town cop, his dad stopped a car for a speeding violation

and was murdered. A cop has to think every time he stops someone for even a speeding ticket he could be shot himself.
That doesn't give anyone the excuse to put their knee on someones neck until they are dead. I have to believe there are
good cops and bad ones just like any occupation. Somehow the bad ones need weeded out.

[Aristus]

6. There's a difference between issuing cops appropriate sidearms,

and issuing them combat gear and armored vehicles, and training them in counterinsurgency instead of community policing.

[doc03]

14. They are at times going up against people with military combat weapons. If civilians weren't

armed with military weapons they wouldn't need military gear.

[Voltaire2]

24. Yeah and they pal around with them.

[Aristus]

28. That's what S.W.A.T. teams used to be for.

Now we have entire police forces that are de facto S.W.A.T. teams.

[Nevilledog]

17. [phone]

[ripcord]

19. Yet we were happy to have them during the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff

[sarisataka]

26. It was less than a month ago

There were more than a few posters who were very much in favor of militarized police. Some wanted them to have even more gear and aggressive tactics.

[Captain_New_York]

9. Chicago PD TV show

Watch an episode of Chicago PD. They violate citizens rights in every episode

[Johnny2X2X]

21. The show Cops made it all normal

When Cops first came on the air, I was blown away. Arrest after arrest with the police breaking the law. There was some backlash at first, but then it just became normal, everyone watched Cops, so when you saw that same behavior live it was no surprise. Things like rights to privacy and freedom from unnecessary search are just out the window.

Cops was an indoctrination. Shortly after that I went to college, and boy was the indoctrination I saw there much more extreme. Students were told they have no rights and for the most part just went along with it. The school passed search laws for the police that said when a student opens their dorm room door they've agreed to allow the police to search their residence. Well, none of the dorm room doors had peep holes, so if someone knocked, you had to open the door to know who it was. They were stopping anyone walking on a Saturday night and arresting them if they couldn't prove they were 21. They even sent undercover officers into student groups concerned with social justice. It was just the next level of a population that don't know their rights.

[doc03]

22. I know I have brought that up before are they portraying what cops actually do or are

the cops copying what they see on the TV?

[J_William_Ryan]

13. The militarization of police

is completely unjustified – it refers to law enforcement going into minority communities as if they were an occupying an enemy nation, with the people living in those communities being the ‘enemy.’

In far too many jurisdictions law enforcement is outfitted more like soldiers preparing for war as opposed to those tasked to ‘serve and protect.’

[Historic NY]

20. What the pro-gun people caused....

their quest more more assault like weapons because they get hung up on definitions made police weapon useless. Until the 80's it was still a thing police agencies carried what are called wheel guns, 357's was the standard with more powerful ammo. The flood on these assault like weapons, made bullet proof vests mandatory, and then they even had to progress to military grade vest to match what guns were on the streets. North Hollywood Bank robbery is what broke the dam when the cops had to raid gun store to get weapons to match the criminals. The loyal shotgun became a secondary weapon, most rural agencies use them for dispatching deer and other injured critters. As we have seen they became the bean bag guns for some. Your correct the civilian arms race to buy whatever the NRA was promoting from high explosive ammo, to 50 cal. rifles, bump stocks , extended magazine, the list goes one...once turned on the street, made Police and other Agencies try to match them. Its seems for some there can never be enough guns. The Trumpers talk about the good old days so maybe we should talk about having these military type weapons all over the place. in the good old days it was a revolver vs some Sat.Nite Special, usually a cheap pieces of crap.

So your right

[doc03]

25. Well finally someone gets the point. In today's society a cop would have to be downright insane

to go out on the street with a .38 revolver. That would be like sending a soldier out on the battlefields with a
flintlock.

[Historic NY]

30. I've lived for 29yrs

[Kaleva]

29. Excellent point. We need to de-militarize the civilians before doing so to the police.

[Voltaire2]

23. yeah I saw how the cops in Minneapolis chased the armed nazi thugs out of the state house.