Every Weapon, Armored Truck, and Plane the Pentagon Gave To Local Police

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Every Weapon, Armored Truck, and Plane the Pentagon Gave To Local Police

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 4, 2014 @12:35PM from the going-down-the-list dept.

v3rgEz writes You may have heard that the image-conscious Los Angeles Unified School District chose to return the grenade launchers it received from the Defense Department's surplus equipment program. You probably have not heard about some of the more obscure beneficiaries of the Pentagon giveaway, but now you can after MuckRock got the Department of Defense to release the full database, letting anyone browse what gear their local department has received.

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Why only to police? by mi · 2014-12-04 12:42 · Score: 4, Interesting

Per the Second Amendment, we all have the right to keep and bear arms. So, why are they only giving these to police? I'd like at least a token weapon (like a single pistol or rifle) for my share of taxes, that went to research, develop, and produce them...

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In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
1. Re:Why only to police? by mi · 2014-12-04 15:01 · Score: 4, Interesting
  Our militaty has no experience in defense (which would be done on US soil.) The olny know offense. (which is done over seas)
  A bragging Athenian once told a Spartan:
  
  There are many of your soldiers lying dead around Athens!
  But none of yours around Sparta...
  --
  In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
$1000 Flashlights? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-04 12:55 · Score: 4, Interesting

And why did they give our local PD 145 flashlights worth $130K? What does a thousand-dollar flashlight even /look/ like?
1. Re:$1000 Flashlights? by Marginal+Coward · 2014-12-04 13:14 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  They must look pretty darn good - otherwise, the folks who would pay $1000 for a flashlight must not be too bright...
2. Re:$1000 Flashlights? by ColdWetDog · 2014-12-04 15:22 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Camouflage netting seems to be a biggy. The Anchorage, Alaska DEA got a $26,000 radar evading camo net system for some bizarre reason. Perhaps they're fighting an onslaught of radar equipped meth labs hidden in Polar Bear dens above the Arctic Circle. Who knows.
  Night vision systems are also popular. That makes sense, but boy am I jealous.
  
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  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Anything sold to the police should be sold... by Karmashock · 2014-12-04 12:55 · Score: 5, Insightful

... to the people.
This limits what you'll sell to the police because a lot of this hardware you don't want in "civilian" hands... the police ARE civilians. They are not military.
Anything the police are able to buy, should be something the average citizen can buy.
Pistols?
Rifles?
Shotguns?
Body armor?
Tear gas?
Gas masks?
Flash bangs?
Tasers?
All of that can be sold to civilians already. No issue there.
Tanks?
Machine guns?
THAT crosses a line.
If I can't buy a tank then I don't want to see the police using them either. Both the police and the general public must operate under the same rules.
If police are getting out gunned by people that have automatic weapons, then we can look at that situation and see how that happened. From what I've seen, that mostly happens with the cartels if it happens at all. And in those cases, you're dealing with a failure of the border patrol etc. Regardless, you can bring in the FBI if you really want to bring some firepower down on their heads.

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1. Re:Anything sold to the police should be sold... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-04 13:39 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Tanks for sale. Some even nearly affordable.
  Machine guns made before 1986 can easily be bought. Those made after require a class 3 FFL, which isn't impossible to get, but you have to follow the rules and it takes a while.
  As far as I know there is only 1 case of a legal machiene gun being used in a crime, and it was owned by a police officer.
2. Re:Anything sold to the police should be sold... by Trailer+Trash · 2014-12-04 14:59 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The police are under civil law, therefore they are "civilians" by the definition of the word.
  
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  Do you have ESP?
Re:$900 Flashlight? by 50000BTU_barbecue · 2014-12-04 13:04 · Score: 5, Insightful

The 850$ kickback.

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Mostly random stuff.
Arming the enemy by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-04 13:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

Yes, but why would they want to arm their enemy.
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