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gigag04 wrote:Learn faster than I did.

And here I thought you came out of the box ready to go.

nightmare69 wrote:Should swat and other tactical response teams be allowed to use firearms and equipment not legal for the general public to own? Like full auto weapons, flash bangs, MRAPS etc.

They should be as well-armed as the BGs they are trying to apprehend.

nightmare69 wrote:So tell me what you think of this police chief's comments and also why there is so much cop hate in this century.

You've asked for two things. First, I have no problem with what the chief said, the way he said it or the forum he used. We'd all be better off if cops could interact with us on social media. Perhaps some might learn what it's like to be a cop and change their attitude.

With regard to the second part, I'm not sure there is "so much copy hate in this century". There's always been an element of the public that is very unforgiving of cops. I'm not sure that's changed, except that social media makes it more accessible. To the extent that it is growing (if it is), I think it has to do with the militarization of the police. The more cops place barriers between themselves and the public, the easier it is for misunderstandings to arise. When cops start driving around in WRAPs dressed in battle gear and carrying automatic weapons, I get concerned about where all this is heading.

I read an article about a small town Indiana department that just got an MWRAP. The Chief was talking about how much more dangerous it is now than it used to be, how the bad guys are better and more heavily armed and how the cops are outgunned. The facts don't support that. So the Chief is reacting emotionally and preparing his department for a scenario that is quite unlikely to happen. The scary part is that they're not going to leave that MWRAP parked. They're going to use it, even though they'd be fine without it. Plus, when you train and gear up like the military, it's human nature to take on a military persona. All of this leads to a very dark place that I don't think we should be headed toward. Nothing good can come from it. And it exacerbates the tensions between cops and citizens.