Anti Federalist
08-25-2014, 09:38 AM
And, glory hallelujah, the comments are...not bad.
Sure, it's NJ, so there are any number of copsuckers and their hangers on, but not as bad as you might think.
Funny how "conservatives" don't mind government handouts when it comes to stuff like this.
Guns, armor and a grenade launcher: Do N.J. cops need weapons of war?
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/08/guns_armor_and_a_grenade_launcher_militarization_o f_police_in_nj.html
In the parking lot of Middletown police headquarters sits a 14-ton armored fighting vehicle designed to withstand roadside improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.
Jersey City police have the firepower of an army, with an inventory of 155 surplus M16 military assault rifles, able to spit out hundreds of rounds a minute.
And the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office has a grenade launcher.
Over the past two decades, law enforcement agencies in New Jersey have acquired surplus military gear worth $32.8 million — including hundreds of automatic rifles, night vision scopes, laser range finders, combat knives, armored trucks, three helicopters and the grenade launcher — all free of charge.
The equipment, made available under a congressionally mandated program set up in the 1990s in response to concerns that local police departments were being outgunned amid a growing plague of violent crime, went to communities across the state, from the city of Newark to the quiet bay town of Barnegat. The program has accelerated with the wind down of the nation’s involvement in the Middle East, bringing a flood of unneeded war material back from the battlefields and onto the streets of communities large and small.
But the federal program — which, since its inception, has funneled $5.1 billion worth of hardware and supplies to more than 8,000 departments across the country — has come into sharp focus since the events in Ferguson, Mo. In the wake of the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer on Aug. 9, images of demonstrators clashing with police clad in black tactical armor, carrying Army assault weapons and riding the streets atop hulking armored trucks like the one parked in Middletown have captured national attention.
More at link...
Sure, it's NJ, so there are any number of copsuckers and their hangers on, but not as bad as you might think.
Funny how "conservatives" don't mind government handouts when it comes to stuff like this.
Guns, armor and a grenade launcher: Do N.J. cops need weapons of war?
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/08/guns_armor_and_a_grenade_launcher_militarization_o f_police_in_nj.html
In the parking lot of Middletown police headquarters sits a 14-ton armored fighting vehicle designed to withstand roadside improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.
Jersey City police have the firepower of an army, with an inventory of 155 surplus M16 military assault rifles, able to spit out hundreds of rounds a minute.
And the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office has a grenade launcher.
Over the past two decades, law enforcement agencies in New Jersey have acquired surplus military gear worth $32.8 million — including hundreds of automatic rifles, night vision scopes, laser range finders, combat knives, armored trucks, three helicopters and the grenade launcher — all free of charge.
The equipment, made available under a congressionally mandated program set up in the 1990s in response to concerns that local police departments were being outgunned amid a growing plague of violent crime, went to communities across the state, from the city of Newark to the quiet bay town of Barnegat. The program has accelerated with the wind down of the nation’s involvement in the Middle East, bringing a flood of unneeded war material back from the battlefields and onto the streets of communities large and small.
But the federal program — which, since its inception, has funneled $5.1 billion worth of hardware and supplies to more than 8,000 departments across the country — has come into sharp focus since the events in Ferguson, Mo. In the wake of the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer on Aug. 9, images of demonstrators clashing with police clad in black tactical armor, carrying Army assault weapons and riding the streets atop hulking armored trucks like the one parked in Middletown have captured national attention.
More at link...