Friday, May 29, 2009

Idiotic Policy at Boston Police Dept.

Apparently, leaders in the Boston Police force are so worried about terrorist attacks like the ones that happened in Mumbia, India, that they're arming patrol officers with semiautomatic, military-grade weaponry. Talk about the wrong priorities! Better theory? Bizarre leaders want new toys. I say let them retire.

Seriously, people should be fired over this, especially given the fact that it does nothing to help the *actual* terrorism going on in the city right now - the 70-80 people being murdered on the streets every year. Semiautomatic M16s won't stop or solve those murders; they may just prompt gangs to strengthen their arms. What's worked in the past has been getting the police and city to work with all facets of the community in crime prevention -- something the city, from all the sources I've talked to, has gotten away from in recent years. Anyone want to take a bet that all of these M16s would pay for a hefty chunk of whatever it would take to restart some of the programs that are actually effective in reducing the youth violence that's led to so many murders over the past few years?

It's one thing to have a well-prepared swat team, it's another to arm regular police officers and allow this culture of fear to continue to prompt idiotic high-ranking officers to ignore the actual terrorism going on in this city every week in favor of the imaginary scenarios that are about as likely to take place as a pig that flies. Boston has almost no threat of a coordinated attack -- and a couple of M16s won't protect us from one. In London, most of the cops don't even go around with guns -- and it's a city that's dealt with very-real terrorism for decades. Kudos to the two officers who had the courage to leak this critical information.

Update: Maybe they're worried about Mooninites?

3 comments:

Gladys Kravitz said...

Ryan, if you think that's bad, I live IN RURAL YET CERTAINLY NOT-MUMBAI BRIDGEWATER. There is a State prison close by. And on any given clear and sunny day, especially in the summer, you can sit on your farmer's porch or patio and be seranaded FOR HOURS by the soothing sounds of M-16s, AK-47's and sometimes even ordinance that seems suspiciously like mortar rounds.

"Weapon's practice" the community is told.

The town web site tells us when we can expect it this ordeal to be over, but somehow, it never is.

Once my father-in-law got out of his car and remarked that it sounded like we lived in a war zone.

Incidently this activity picked up significantly after 9-11.

Steer clear of Bridgewater, you would-be terrorists!

Anonymous said...

OMG! Gladys, I've driven on Summer St when this was going on and its distressing. Do they think the prison is a terrorist target? Who will they shoot? Those breaking in or breaking out?

Ryan, when I heard this on the radio, I was returning by train from Boston and was awestruck at the stupidity. My thoughts echoed yours. Doesn't anyone remember the programs Romney eliminated? They kept kids off the streets, mentored them, gave them jobs.

As soon as the programs were cut, the gun crimes escalated. It seems no one is making that connection.

Meninno may have had a problem with Romney, but he no longer has that convenient excuse, plus he's up for re-election.

If you want to examine other countries, how about our northern neighbor that doesn't have the volume of gun violence the US does. If we stopped allowing ourselves to believe "Live in Fear" lies and opposed the NRA, the culture might change.

Daria Gunderson said...

Ryan,

I'm glad you commented on this.

When I heard it, all I could think of was 'the cops are armed, so the bad guys get more deadly weapons.' Then the cops get more powerful weapons. What happens when an innocent civilian gets killed because we have machine guns in an urban environment?

This just seems so wrongheaded.

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