New York Times reports - police departments across the country receive tens of thousands of machines, hundreds of thousands of shops, thousands of camouflage and night vision devices, silencers, armored vehicles and helicopters. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police-departments.html?hp&_r=3 The total picture is as follows: Other armored vehicles - 435 \ Night vision pieces - 44,900 \ Aircraft - 533 \ Machine guns - 93,763 \ Magazines - 180,718 Soon the dollar collapse. Consequently - unemployment. Rampant crime. Uncontrolled gang. Looting, violence, riots. Someone has to pacify disgruntled and protect the oligarchs. Police prepare to suppress mass protests. U.S. residents will soon learn how as live in Iraq, Libya, Syria ..... Boomerang returns. Welcome to the new world.
No and no. Just getting rid of surplus equipment. Seems wasteful to me but government is good at waste.
We'll see. I think soon. (Judging by the way as begin to reduce financial investment in U.S. securities. And translation turnover of dollar into other currencies. 3-5 years, I think. Although it may quickly. If you begin to panic and start to get rid of the U.S. securities)
We had ton's of surplus equipment following Reagan's administration but it was not given to police department's around the country. We sold it to our allies. The last thing Americans want to see is military vehicles and assault weapons being used by their police. NSA spying, fear of terrorist attacks, IRS singling out conservative organizations, rampant illegal immigration by women and children, economy fears, etc. and now beefed up police departments. You really have to wonder if something is going on if you don't have your head in the sand.
Well of course something is going on. Its called the Obama administration, but it will come to an end.
I fear it runs a lot deeper within our government than just this administration. Every presidential candidate says they want to change the status quo, yet nothing does change. If anything the status quo increases with every new administration.
More on exchange of military hardware. http://news.yahoo.com/as-wars-wind-down--small-town-cops-inherit-armored-vehicles-233505138.html LOL at this Police say the vehicles are necessary to protect officers in a violent world. In Washington, meanwhile, Shellmyer gets ribbed by the locals for the vehicle and the local media attention it’s garnered. “I go down to a little filling station and there’s always two or three boys sipping coffee and they say, ‘Well Shellmyer do you feel safer now that we have a tank?’” The city councilman just shrugs it off. “We’re just trying to put the blanket over the top of it and hopefully people will forget we have it.” Seems a little bit overkill to me. Vehicles like this seem more suited for helping in a natural disaster than for agencies like police/swat. If another war fires up does the military get them back, or do we get to pay for new ones when they need them?
Which of our allies would want it? Defense contractors prefer to sell new stuff to their customers, in any case, and don't want the government giving away free stuff to anybody. We left thousands upon thousands of free trucks in France after WW I, for instance; GM didn't want all those surplus trucks driving down truck prices in domestic markets after the war. They cost the military around $600 a copy then, but the price in domestic markets was around $2,500 at the time.
I worked for a Defense Contractor refurbishing 1980's Army AH1 Cobras and UH1 Hueys. We sold them to Pakistan and the Philippines. These are great helicopters that aren't being built anymore. The government decides what military equipment gets sold to our allies. Not the military complex and certainly not a defense contractor.
The right wing needs to understand that if they go too far, the rest of the nation will explode and it is not going to be pretty. When the right wing explodes, you have old people stomping their canes and waving flags. When the left explodes, you have riots, mass demonstrations and Kent State. The numbers represented by anyone to the left of the far right are massive. They are playing with fire here.
Too bad the left have no concept of limited government, so by the time they "explode", everyone with a badge will be inside a tank.
Limited government? Tell that to the women at Hobby Lobby or the next million women your party wants to slut shame.
I had heard somewhere awhile back that the US is buying up all kinds of ammunition. Maybe they're preparing for some kind of civil unrest?