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One of my concerns is the militarization of police, fueled by free military equipment from the Feds.

"Los Angeles Unified School District announced that it would return the three grenade launchers it had acquired from the Defense Department but would keep its armored personnel carrier and sixty-one assault rifles."

Did you know 600 US cities now own a free MRAP?
What do local police need with bayonets??

Here you can look up who got what:

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2014 ... od-graphic

Multiple threads on this subject. Here's one:
viewtopic.php?f=83&t=75289&hilit=Mrap

Dallas Country Sheriff Department received 23 7.62 rifles for a total cost of only $3,174. If I read that correctly, that is a total cost of all the rifles. That's $138 per rifle. I don't think I'd like to shoot one of those.

Also quite concerning to me is the militarization that is happening in small and large town USA. One of my conspiracy theorist friends proposes that these distributions of equipment that are essentially useless, except during a once in a million nightmare scenario, is to 'store' these items in decentralized locations until they are needed by national or global law enforcement agencies - not for use by the local police to whom they have been distributed.

One way to tell if you are living in a police state is the inability, at a glance, to tell the difference between your local police force and the military.

Many interstate highway intersections have been reconstructed so that the interstate is the bridge over the smaller road. Perhaps this is to move windmill parts up and down the highway, and perhaps it is so that large armored vehicles may move unimpeded about our land.

Hopefully, these are far fetched theories, but it makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Or maybe they're getting tired of big trucks on the highway running into bridges. IDK

I understood that the original criteria for the interstate highway system was to allow rapid movement of troops and materiel. Supposedly there was to be a straight mile every so often to allow aircraft to land. In that light, designing highways to suit military is not new, indeed it's part of Eisenhower's plan.

My sleepy little town of 21,000 where no sniper has ever been deployed and no officer has ever been shot in the line of duty has a shiny new $733,000 MRAP for all of the high risk warrants and hostage situations that occur here. It sits under an awning behind the police station... probably will for the next 20 years except for display at national night out.

Army gets to essentially throw away good gear, like they did in Iraq
and the Military industrial Complex and their lobbyist gets to keep selling them the same "stuff" over and over again

After Ferguson, Obama realized these weapons would not only be used against Americans, But BLACK americans! His administration has tried to stop it, but who knows wether they can stop the signal.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015 ... on-humvees

Not sure about the grenade launchers, but in LA, an "assault rifle" could refer to any center fire semi auto, whether it has the shoulder thingy that goes up or not.

There are sections of LA where an APC is de riguer.

Nuts4hotwheels wrote:

psijac wrote:Army gets to essentially throw away good gear, like they did in Iraq
and the Military industrial Complex and their lobbyist gets to keep selling them the same "stuff" over and over again

I agree, it is crap like his that is creating such a debt in our country.

While any spending over and above what is necessary exacerbates the debt, what is wasted in the military is chicken feed compared to "entitlements."

Based on how the FedGov operates lately, I guess we should be thankful the cops are getting this stuff. Obama would probably be on-board with giving it to the Chicago gangs. Because Equality and all that, ya know

Nuts4hotwheels wrote:

psijac wrote:Army gets to essentially throw away good gear, like they did in Iraq
and the Military industrial Complex and their lobbyist gets to keep selling them the same "stuff" over and over again

I agree, it is crap like his that is creating such a debt in our country.

The 1033 program is a shell game. Who owns the mine resistant ambush protected wheeled vehicle? The Dept. of Defense does not transfer ownership to local PDs. There in lies the answer to your conundrum, "throwing away good gear" is exactly what is not happening.

The original procurement of the MRAPs, transport to theater, POL, operational maintenance while there and transport back to CONUS was part of the "Overseas Contingency Operations" fund, not a part of the DoD budgets. With the end of operations in Iraq and draw down in Afghanistan the MRAPs costs were going to hit the budget! At low operational tempos maintenance costs exceeded $50k per unit annual. Storage and the resulting degradation of the MRAPs, along with the huge costs in quickly standing them back up was not the answer.

Instead the DoD is "gifting" other governmental departments and municipalities with 13,000 of them. They'll be lovingly maintained, taken out for a ride once in awhile, and should the need arise, swiftly returned to the DoD for re-militarization and on to the battlefield.
Will there be the occasional PD that can't maintain "their" MRAP? Sure, but a huge percentage of them will be returned to depot, upfitted with radios, transponders, vision blocks, a dab of paint, etc. and rolled onto transport.

My local PD got 10 5.56 rifles.
I can only assume those are full auto?

Total value? $4990.00 ...
I'm jealous. Where can I buy a full auto 5.56 for $500? Please?

RoyGBiv wrote:My local PD got 10 5.56 rifles.
I can only assume those are full auto?

Total value? $4990.00 ...
I'm jealous. Where can I buy a full auto 5.56 for $500? Please?

Mexico. Just tell them you're there for your Fast and Furious gun that Obama sent.