The New York Times has a cool map as to where “excess Military Equipment” has gone from the US Military to counties around the nation: Militarization of the Police
Given the images from Ferguson, MO that have gone up all over the blogosphere (yeah, I need to post up the ones I’ve bookmarked) during the rioting there, it is causing a national question to be asked: How militarized should our police forces really be”? Have police forces gone overboard in the “it’s free so I gotta get mine – even if I’ll never use it”? Do citizens, when seeing these images, think “this is my PEACE Officer or is this a junior version of Special Forces”? The Youngest, upon glancing at some of the news clips, said “Heck, even *I* didn’t carry that amount of stuff while in Afghanistan”.
Do we, as a nation or even locally, need (or want) a police force or one that is transformed, permanently, into paramilitary units? There is a difference – a big difference, not least of which is “Are the police one of us, or do they see us as an enemy to be contained, controlled, or crushed?
- Belknap County: 60 Assault Rifles, 30 pistols, 2 grenade launchers
- Carroll County: 38 Assault Rifles, 6 pistols
- Cheshire County: 20 Assault Rifles
- Coos County: 2 Assault Rifles, 8 night vision pieces
- Grafton County: 70 Assault Rifles, 32 night vision pieces
- Hillsborough County: 202 Assault Rifles, 4 night vision pieces
- Merrimack County: 132 Assault Rifles, 38 night vision pieces, 34 body armor pieces
- Rockingham County: 160 Assault Rifles, 62 night vision pieces
- Strafford County: 76 Assault Rifles, 6 night vision pieces
- Sullivan County: 32 Assault Rifles
What the heck does Belknap County need with Grenade Launchers for???
