Opinion - "Police Militarization Gave Us Uvalde"

[TexHill]

Interesting opinion piece from The Atlantic on the use of military gear, tactics, and mindset by police agencies. I've been saying for years that police should not use military gear or uniforms because doing so causes officers to adopt a more aggressive mind set as well as it erodes the public's trust.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...uvalde/661295/

[markm]

I've been saying for years that police should not use military gear or uniforms because doing so causes officers to adopt a more aggressive mind set

The only aggressive thing about police in Uvalde was them preventing ANYONE from killing the shooter. They LITERALLY ran security for the killer. There was ZERO amount of desperately needed aggression in that tragedy.

[BoringGuy45]

You use the gear that will best allow you to do your job. If you're going to go into a dangerous situation where there is a likelihood of a firefight, it's better to have a plate carrier and a rifle than a Kevlar vest and a pistol. If bullets are going to be flying, you're going to need an armored vehicle. The days of cops dressing in Class As for patrol and carrying only a .38 revolver and a billy club are over because that was getting cops killed by criminals with better firepower. The problem at Uvalde was lack of training and lack of adherence to active shooter protocol.

The Atlantic can suck it, too. They're a far left rag.

[1168]

Every attempt that I’ve made to read the Atlantic revealed such amazing stupidity that it eroded my brain. Especially the one that attempted to make a case that hiring practices that screen for intelligence are discriminatory. Like 5 pages of the author simping for room temp IQ.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

The only aggressive thing about police in Uvalde was them preventing ANYONE from killing the shooter. They LITERALLY ran security for the killer. There was ZERO amount of desperately needed aggression in that tragedy.

They ran a very good perimeter security…

The Atlantic isn’t as bad as the others, it has some OK things in it.

[TexHill]

Arthur Rizer served as a Military Police and Armor officer in the reserve and active U.S. Army. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the WV National Guard. In the military Rizer was deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, where he helped train the Iraqi Army to fight the insurgency and was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart Medals. Also before law school, Rizer worked as a civilian police officer in Washington State.

http://arthurrizer.com/

[markm]

Every attempt that I’ve made to read the Atlantic revealed such amazing stupidity that it eroded my brain. Especially the one that attempted to make a case that hiring practices that screen for intelligence are discriminatory.

Holy F%&K!!!

[TomMcC]

IDK. Cops have been using automatic weapons and ambushes since the gangster days. Just read about the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde. And I really don't blame the police for having a plan to kill people they meet. In all truth I kind of do the same thing. It's a really dangerous job. The killings he talked about were, IMO, just overall bad policing that could have happened in any era. The last interaction I had directly with a cop was quite pleasant, and he didn't show the least bit of aggression. My wife's purse was stolen from the gym, and her knife was stolen. We started talking about knives, and he showed me his, handed it right to me, so it's not a problem with every cop at least.

My concern with the militarization of the police and Uvalde is, did they wait too long waiting for SWAT while kids were dying when immediate action was required.

[titsonritz]

Then we would have had a Beslan not a Uvalde, moron.

[TexHill]

From the article:

And so, with the sanction of the courts, departments have reworked their tactics to define American communities as battle spaces, and citizens in them as potential enemies. We have for years told American police officers to regard every civilian encounter as potentially deadly, and that they must always be prepared to win that death match. This is not an exaggeration; there is extensive academic literature on the “danger imperative” as a cornerstone of police training. An entire industry of grifting ex-cops have made themselves rich training police departments in fear and loathing of civilians, quite literally telling officers that they must always have a plan to kill everyone they encounter.