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Walsh: No military-style rifles in police cruisers

The Herald reports the mayor to be is opposed to stocking some BPD cruisers with high-powered rifles.

BPD wants two cruisers in each police district equipped with the rifles in case of school shootings or future Marathon-type incidents, in addition to the city's existing SWAT officers.

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Comments

This is a slippery slope that leads only to the further militarization of the police.

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The police are already absurdly militarized. By the time that the marathon bomber chase was going it was the police who put all the holes into people's homes and computer chairs. Police are at the point they are a priviledged business as much as any other and it is disgusting.

I implore everyone to get a copy of "Rise of the Warrior Cop" to see how bad it's truly gotten (hundreds of terrorizing no-knock raids per night, profiteering "legal" asset forfeiture, rampant puppycide, getting the locations wrong… I can go on and on)

If not, at least take some quick glances at articles like: http://www.motherjones.com/print/240896 (great links within)

Or even better, keep up with Radley's blog http://www.theagitator.com

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Balko is an amazing journalist.

Unfortunately, he doesn't keep his blog updated anymore.

He just left the huffington post for the washington post.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/12/radley-balko-joins-washingto...

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“If the cops have these machine guns, they’re going to use them,” Nolan said. “Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get killed, an innocent bystander is going to get caught in the crossfire and there is going to be a tragic result,” he said.

The fact that these weapons are being called "MACHINE GUNS", just goes to show how uneducated the people involved in making this decision are on the matter.

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^^^ may be gun porn addict

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More like someone that knows what they are talking about versus someone making statements based off their Hollywood education.

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More like spouting technical details that make no difference to what is being discussed just so you can thump your chest claim something is "ignorant" and casually dismiss the larger point. Amazing the overlap between gun porn aficionados and global warming deniers.

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Sounds like you are! That other guy MUST be a gun nut (and therefore disregarded). He must also fall into an overlap with global warming deniers (and therefore disregarded). I'm not sure how you even came up with the whole global warming thing, but hey, anything we can to keep the drama levels elevated and dismiss someone who's trying to keep heads clear, right?

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...then anon wouldn't be implicitly supporting the purchase of notoriously buggy guns for a ridiculously inflated price of $2500 per, according to the linked article. Ie, the top-of-bubble price during the fake 'Obama gunna take our guns scare' after the spate of mass shootings last year. That bubble has pretty much burst - right now the typical retail price for an AR-15 is about 1/4-1/3 of that.

So, even if you think it's a good idea for our police to have these guns (and I don't), you should applaud the incoming mayor's fiscal good sense.

Unless, of course, your image of effective policing is based on Hollywood action movies (see what I did there)?

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If you weren't too busy looking to pick a fight and did some research you'd learn that LE purchases include cases, magazines, optics, cleaning kits, slings, and usually officer training as part of the per rifle cost.

Every other department around the City of Boston has done this or received the same type of rifles for free at some point when the feds were unloading disused military stockpiles.

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LMAO! Military has NO AR15's in inventory, never had any and never will... they have select fire M16's which are illegal to use by LEO's in MA.... LEO purchases DO NOT include optics or slings, AR's come with cases and one or two mags, usually a 30 and a ten rounder but since it's MA they'll be single shot! HA! pssst training is extra too... usually done by some armorer already on the force or by an outside consultant that can get them range time.

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/30/menin...

"Mayor says no to police rifle patrols
Backs M-16s only for special units Some local leaders irate over plan
By Michael Levenson and Donovan Slack
Globe Staff / May 30, 2009

Facing sharp criticism, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday that he will not approve a Boston Police Department plan to arm neighborhood officers with semiautomatic rifles, although he expressed some support for their use by specialized units.

The police have obtained 200 M-16s free of charge from the US military and made plans to train dozens of officers and arm them with the rifles. A Globe story yesterday said police officials told union leaders months ago and again in recent weeks that they planned to issue the weapons to precinct patrol officers, as well as specialized units such as the bomb squad and harbor patrol.
"

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1. TCF098 is correct. Calling the AR-15's in question a "machine gun" is wildly incorrect and a loaded term to those ignorant of firearms. Pointing that out is hardly pedantic. If you think the terms are interchangeable, you need to stfu and educate yourself.

2. TCF098 didn't "implicitly support" anything. They pointed out that the so called expert on this was talking out his ass, nothing more You should work on your reading comprehension or mind reading, because you suck at both.

3. High end AR's still go for $2k+. If they are going to buy rifles, they should at least buy quality ones instead of a $600 jam o matic with poor quality control. (oops! did I just implicitly support something by discussing it!?!?)

See here:

http://www.laruetactical.com/obr-556?sort=popular

or here:

http://www.hk-usa.com/civilian_products/mr556_general.asp

4. The "oh noes he must be a gun nut" thing is so tired and lazy. I know how a combustion engine works and the difference between a turbo charger and super charger. That doesn't make me a "car nut", it makes me educated about the subject.

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Thanks for the back up. I couldn't have said it better myself.

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^^^ Probably thinks a 6-inch utility knife is way more dangerous than a 4-inch paring knife, because it is 2 inches longer. And scarier looking.

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AM I THE ONLY ONE HERE WHO CARES ABOUT THE RULES??!!

"Gun fondler" is the appropriate nomenclature, dude.

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If the cops had access to these weapons would it have stopped or prevented additional deaths in the Marathon Bombing? The CT School Shootings?

If the answer isn't a definitive yes then why further arm the police. It only increases the risk that innocent people get killed, as what happened when that girl got shot in the eye by a Boston cop using a weapon he shouldn't have had.

Update: Wow, it's been 10 years since that shooting of an innocent Emerson student by a Boston cop using a weapon he had no business using.

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That's why, because cops get off on military style weaponry.

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And anon gets off on himself

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I thought you were trying to monitor replys, this is what you let get through? Thats the path to comments that mirror the drivel that you see in the Herald and Globe comments.

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Because someone posted FACTS that oppose your liberal views?

Maybe we should combate the murders in boston with hugs and chocolate.

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Would those be?

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go to the same Skool for Those Who Dont Reed and Spel Good?

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Cops shouldn't have big scary guns - as a matter of fact, they shouldn't have any guns, period. Heck, let's take it one step further and glue soft boxing gloves to their hands, so they can't hurt anybody.

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The city ordinance banning "assault weapons" makes ownership of the AR15 style platform illegal by private citizens within the city limits. If citizens of Boston cannot legally own these firearms neither should the police. No one should be above the law.

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Do you also feel ambulances and firetrucks should stop at red lights?

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If laws banning things really did anything to stop criminals from breaking laws then there would be no need for the police to have firearms in the first place.

All the city ordinance and this decision by the future mayor does is disarm law abiding citizens and police officers who will potentially have to face criminals armed with these things.

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Because laws are broken we should have no laws? I don't agree with you.

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Because the current laws don't work since criminals ignore them we should write even more laws that won't work because criminals will continue to ignore them?

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Technically, they are legally obligated to do so (and you'll see that in practice, most emergency vehicles at least slow down when going through red lights).

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What does this article have to do with anything? Now you're assuming that all police officers have mental health issues, and shouldn't be provided with the weapons necessary to keep the public safe while on duty?

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The article indicates that the officer probably shouldn't be on duty if he has issues which would make him dangerous enough to not be allowed to be armed off duty.

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For a former Boston Police Lt to call an AR-15 a 'machine gun' is either a deliberate act of disinformation or the guy is an idiot..

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Criminals aren't gonna play by the rules and can gain access to high-powered rifles, seems like this rule is going to put the police at a disadvantage.

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Yes, we should totally arm and engage with the enemy at their lowest common denominator. If we are hit with a dirty bomb attack, then we should arm our cops with nuclear warheads they can deploy in retaliation.

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The staties can still carry their machine guns at Logan and state property and carry rifles in cruisers along the beaches and the transit police can still carry their machine guns at south station. The campus police can carry rifles in their cruisers and the FPS can carry rifles on Federal property. The only areas where police won't be able to carry rifles is in neighborhoods

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Most comments on here show just how blue Massachusetts is. Let them carry any weapon, because as far as I'm concerned we live in a scary world...

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Crime isn't just down in the last 25 years ... it is WAY down,

You are at vastly more risk of dying in a car wreck than dying at the hands of a criminal.

Stop watching TV news, start looking at actual statistics, and that boogyman under your bed will start to lose its power.

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there are many victims of violent crimes, including family and friends, who would find your post smug and condescending. My family and me among them.

And crime statistics can and are fudged. The only really accurate ones are homicides, and a big part of the reason there's been a drop in murders is superior trauma treatment compared to 20-30+ years ago. Also, many crimes go unreported, including violent street assaults and robberies.

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Also, many crimes go unreported, including violent street assaults and robberies.

So gang-on-gang type crimes are unreported. And so what if they are? You shouldn't have to worry, then, unless you're saying you're a thug. If Joe Schmoe Law-Abider is attacked, it's not going to be unreported.

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You couldn't be more incorrect. Totally innocent, non criminal people are victimized all the time, including violently,and a sibstantial number of these crimes go unreported due to the fact many in The City, especially if they are fromThe City, view contacting police waste of time. Police management don't really care, nor do politicians, because it makesthe actual crime rate look lower than it really is.

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East Boston and Chinatown are notorious for not reporting crime due to the language barrier and sometimes victims being illegal aliens or having family living with them which are.

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Overall crime is down. But crimes involving guns have gone up in MA since the 1998 changes in the firearms laws. We are the only state in New England which has seen this increase.

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That said, there's also SWAT available. I also agree local police have become too militarized, and you can thank the federal government for that.

Also, machine gun?! Jesus, Mary,St. Joseph....I love how those who want to take all firearms out of the hands of law abiding citizens throw these 'scary' terms out. Another one is 'semi-automatic', as opposed to what, a blunderbuss?

This is kind of cool: British police in England have been known to patrol 'Estates' (housing projects) with big, scary automatic assault rifles! Clutch the pearls!

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I respect your neutral post. I cannot side with the mayor on this.. Call me what u want but I feel safer with well armed cops.. If they ban rifles from cops can we at least hire more cops? The more the merrier... I want to see more at T stops or even on the trains . Not many people will commit a crime with a visible cop in the area..

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