Pentagon funnels $7.4B in surplus military gear to police

submitted by magnora7 from (news.ycombinator.com)

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[–]magnora7[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (22 children)

There's no big international war going on right now for America, so this is how the Military-Industrial Complex will meet their sales quotas this year.

Most of it given free with a "use it or lose it" clause, where they have 6 months to use the equipment or return it, so they find reasons to use it.

This is why we've seen so many botched SWAT raids in the last couple decades. They're finding reasons to use the equipment so they can keep it.

As far as I can tell, it seems this is being done intentionally to militarize the police and thus generate further domestic conflict and unrest.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

The police have been militarized since Prohibition-era. This is nothing new, really. It does make me think that they are gearing up for something.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Cops now are far more militarized than they were during even the 70s

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Well, the world has accepted things which were once purely military. Anyways, besides helicopters, fancy new tech, tear gas and SWAT teams, what's different? Back then, they had armored vehicles, submachine guns, shotguns, and riot gear.

Not meaning to stir the waters, because you are right. The police are better equipped than some Army battalions overseas.

[–]yerafookincunt 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

So is the populace.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[deleted]

    [–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

    Good point. If someone powerful has a monopoly on a "Problem, reaction, solution" process, they can use it to control others.

    [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (14 children)

    So few raids actually even needed to be raids, and they're probably done because of this. In this modern age it's very hard for the average person to remain a fugitive, we could just send letters to be people telling them to turn themselves in for non-violent offenses and that'd work way better.

    [–][deleted] 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

    lol yeah let's just ask criminals to go to jail themselves. let's ask nicely.

    [–][deleted] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

    I think most people would if not doing so resulted in a harsher penalty. Not everyone is going to go off the grid and only work jobs that will pay under the table, and unless they do that we all leave a paper trail where we can be found. Sure, you wouldn't want to do that with rapists and murderers, but there's a whole lotta ground between law abiding citizen and master criminal.

    I think it would have worked with Breanna Taylor.

    [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    so naive

    [–][deleted] 3 insightful - 4 fun3 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 4 fun -  (10 children)

    Can you imagine if we devoted a tenth of this money to helping the poor and "too poor to afford therapy, too rich to get aid" people, so they could actually get help before they'd end up arrested for crimes?

    [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

    No, how dare you offer up a logical solution? How dare you?!

    [–]Minedwe 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

    What money? No money was involved, the 7.4 Billion is the value of the weaponry. They could sell it off instead, but that probably violates some government contract or stipulation. If you want money for the poor, there's plenty of wasteful government agencies and programs.

    [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

    Yes, exactly. The value of the weaponry. The absolute insane amount of waste spending we're throwing into the military instead of our own citizenry.

    [–]Minedwe 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

    "Waste"? I'm sure you'd love to have China and their commie ilk marching through our streets or firing nuclear missiles at us too? Most of the money contributed to social programs gets eaten up by corrupt megacorps and politicians or lazy immigrants and blacks anyway.

    [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

    If you think spending more money than the next ten countries combined is justified on the basis of "muh threats" you're exactly the kind of propaganda eating lapdog the pentagon loves. Seriously? "Why spend it on our own citizenry? They'll just waste it!" - It's amazing what a hypocritical position you have. If that's your attitude why do you even care about defending your country?

    [–]Minedwe 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

    "Why spend it on our own citizenry? They'll just waste it!" I never said this. I said that the real, responsible citizens will never even see the money, because it will be wasted on fat cat politicians and lazy immigrants and other "diversity" programs.

    If you think spending more money than the next ten countries combined is justified on the basis of "muh threats"

    Yes.

    you're exactly the kind of propaganda eating lapdog the pentagon loves.

    The feds and pentagon have repeatedly espoused anti-white and anti-Third Position ideas, so I would assume quite the opposite.

    [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

    You'll want to fix your formatting, but I got it anyway. Why not have our supposed "allies" actually spend for their own defense instead of playing world police? Why not defend ourselves, not proactively serve as defense for others? Why not spend our money on ourselves? If you honestly think all spending on ourselves will do is "enrich fat cat politicians", I've got bad news for you - it already enriches fat cat generals and government contract companies siphoning off all of our money fighting for people not our own.

    [–]Minedwe 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    Why not have our supposed "allies" actually spend for their own defense instead of playing world police? Why not defend ourselves, not proactively serve as defense for others?

    We should.

    If you honestly think all spending on ourselves will do is "enrich fat cat politicians", I've got bad news for you - it already enriches fat cat generals and government contract companies siphoning off all of our money fighting for people not our own.

    I am aware of this. There's really no right answer here because the entire US government is corrupt and a failure.

    [–][deleted] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

    I used to be against this kind of thing but now see why it's necessary.

    [–]magnora7[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

    There are some legitimate use cases, but this "use it in 6 months or return it" stipulation is just causing trouble, as it's causing a lot of illegitimate use cases

    [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    that's a rare thing but yeah use it or lose it is no good, they do need these things and for longer than 6 months.

    [–]copenseethe 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    It is ironic to think of all the military gear police departments have and then watch videos of cops riding bicycles to confront rioters. They need a few tanks in Portland and Minneapolis.

    [–]Drewski 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    There's a couple of great books on the militarization of the police that I'd highly recommend:

    Battlefield America: The War On The American People by John W. Whitehead and Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces by Radley Balko

    If you live in a small town or nice community, it's easy to be insulated from what's happening with the police in America. There's also a drive to push people on the right to overlook violations of the constitution in the name of "safety" and upholding "law and order". Really enlightening and scary stuff, I recommend both to everyone.

    You could probably grab the ebooks or audiobooks from b-ok.cc audiobookbay.nl or torrentz2.is though I recommend supporting the authors if you can.

    [–]Minedwe 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    Watch BLM either ignore this or start screeching about how evil and racist it is

    [–]killerjavi98 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    That's a lot of guns.

    [–]yerafookincunt 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    It would be nicer if they were trained for about 2-3 years instead of 6 months so that they didn't get trained JUST ENOUGH to become hair-trigger dangers to society like those who they're chasing. Rather than give them more elaborate weapon systems to enable their confirmation bias.