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A comment on Lawmakers begin bipartisan push to cut off police access to military-style gear. Parent comment

Re:Lawmakers begin bipartisan push to cut off police access ... by AWildC182 on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @01:31PM (#23393622)
It's interesting trolling that side of the youtube algorithm. It's abundantly clear that we've shifted from cops just being a mix of individuals who want to help and a substantial number of not-so-ex-high-school-bullies to full on military LARPers.

The DHS funding being pumped into the forces have resulted in police being better battle-equipped than the average country's military and this has become a recruiting tool. Don't want to sign many years of your life away and probably get shipped out to a -stan where you have to deal with constant misery just to live out a military fantasy? Just go to a police academy for a couple months and you can cosplay all you want while with all the same toys in a "target rich environment".

The end result is we've created a recruiting pull that only finds the worst possible people for the job. It would be like HR only hiring people for a software company who picked computer science entirely because they heard it was high paying but somehow far far deadlier.

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Re:Lawmakers begin bipartisan push to cut off police access ... by in_cahoots on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @01:41PM (#23393733)
Is there any evidence this is true? The vast majority of cops will never aim their weapons at another person or use military gear beyond training. Is the slim chance of getting to use a humvee once in your career really compelling?
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Re:Lawmakers begin bipartisan push to cut off police access ... by ksdale on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @01:45PM (#23393783)
A lot of people end up in law school because of courtroom dramas, even though the vast majority of attorneys don't spend much time at all in a courtroom...
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Re:Lawmakers begin bipartisan push to cut off police access ... by chipperyman573 on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @06:58PM (#23397524)
You're backing a claim made without any evidence by using another claim without evidence
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Re:Lawmakers begin bipartisan push to cut off police access ... by ksdale on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @12:24PM (#23405220)
I went to a well-regarded law school and happen to have witnessed first hand both how many students were surprised that they wouldn't end up seeing the inside of a courtroom in their careers, and how many students shifted their goals from wanting to be a prosecutor or a civil litigator to wanting to do one of the hundreds of other things attorneys do on a daily basis.
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Re:Lawmakers begin bipartisan push to cut off police access ... by perfmode on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @03:16PM (#23395001)
right now, in the present moment, on might argue that a majority of police in america are presently participating in this cosplay.
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Re:Lawmakers begin bipartisan push to cut off police access ... by AWildC182 on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @06:59PM (#23397534)
Traditionally that was the case, however there's been an increase in incidents where they have been responding with far more gear and weapons than could possibly be reasonable. In short, they're actively looking for excuses to play dress-up and it's getting worse.
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