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America 'Has Become a War Zone'
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."'
the police don't actually have to protect the citizens.
this is worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
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.
THL phish sticks
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/...
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 the statistics for the sheriffs department involved. 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.
The Feds used one when they burned some 50 women and children to death in Waco.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Violent Crime rates are the lowest they've been for decades: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi...
Yet "Justifiable Homicide" by the police when attacked has almost doubled: http://tacreports.org/storage/...
(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...
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
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
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.
Canada?
Is that the country with strict gun laws that just had a mass shooting 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.
OP's logical failure is called the fallacy of the single cause. After half a dozen logic classes and 4 textbooks... I wouldn't be so quick to judge his professors, but it's odd someone could pass a logic course without knowing basic ELEMENTARY logic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...
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.