I just hope SFPD doesn't use this as a pretext to get military-grade equipment here.
It's a deeply corrupt and violent PD. This is the last thing this city needs.
How much military-style equipment does the SFPD really need—and for what? - 48 Hills
It doesn't need any.
Somebody please inform these conservatives on the difference between "wants" and needs." :problem:
Tanks, assault rifles, chemical projectiles ... the supes have a chance to weigh in on the inventory and the rules. That's The Agenda for Oct. 23 to 30.
It’s been quite a while since the San Francisco Police Department has had to deal with a highly armed militia or gang of robbers and kidnappers heavily barricaded in a second-floor room and refusing to surrender.
I’m not sure it’s happened even once in the 40 years I’ve been a reporter in this city.
But if that were ever to be a problem, the SFPD is ready: The department has a Lenco BearCat with a Patriot 3 Liberator Ramp System. That’s a mine-resistant armed vehicle that can carry 12 fully equipped officers and includes an 11-foot battering ram and a special tactical ramp that can lift a cadre of cops up to a second story to mount a massive assault.
Classic authoritarian, eliminationist, xenophobic conservatism.
"Liberation" means "liberating" as many people from their lives as possible, with the most disproportionate force possible.
:problem:
It cost $335,000.
:problem:
How many salaries for better cops and better top brass and overall better policing could be had for $335K.
More in link.