So much for that militarization of the police issue
by digby
Was I hallucinating or did we just have a national debate about the militarization of police? And wasn't the consensus that it wasn't a great idea? We had congressional hearings on it. Senators of both parties promised to introduce legislation to end the programs that give local police military equipment.
So what the hell is this?
The New York City Police Department announced on Thursday it plans to introduce an anti-terror strike force armed with rifles and machine guns, television station WCBS reported.
The force will be “designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said, according to the television station.
Officers in the unit will “be equipped with all the extra heavy protective gear, with the long rifles and machine guns — unfortunately sometimes necessary in these instances,” Bratton added.
They're going to use this military force armed with machine guns for protests. Sound cannons, tasers and pepper spray just isn't getting the job done.
I guess that whole thing was just so 2014, like ebola and Piketty. I just can't keep up ...