Quote:I hear ya, about the militarization concern. However, I think that when you are given a whole bunch of really expensive hammers that are really cool to use, everything looks like a nail that needs pummeling.


You mention that robot, you don't think that there were other ways to get this guy without an awesome gadget and bomb? If the story is true, they had him pinned in and pretty much stopped from killing. Having a slow moving robot with a huge bomb go off, while very cool if it was in a movie setting gives me pause. It's my opinion that police should be police, not the marines.


As for the costs, you may very well be right that taxes may go up, but I wonder, if the war on drugs ends, how much cost savings would a state have by not having so many drug criminals to house... at the end of the day, certain sacrifices will need to be made for a better society. An increase in property tax, or income tax even, to fix a system that is cancerous to the welfare of the society is with it, in my opinion.


But like I said there may very well be offsets you are not considering.


Less officers, but more pay for the ones that are working may result in a zero effect.


Ceasing the purchase of highly expensive military equipment may offset the removal of ticket quotas.


And no longer housing drug users as criminals will save alot of money in cities as well.


That's my thoughts on it...

 

If the cool gadget saved one innocent casualty (including K-9s), it's worth it.  Where you may have a point, is that expensive robot technology could be shared with the National Guard or a local military base, with interagency agreements to share the tool under circumstances like last night.  One of the talking heads on CNN said that the decision to go with the robot will be second guessed throughout the coming months, so here we go.

 

I DID say more pay, better qualified officers, but not less of them.  That will increase government expense, and there's no way to get around it.  I like the idea of decriminalizing marijuana and taxing it too, because it also reduces the cost of keeping people behind bars, as you mentioned.  Building prisons is expensive, and maybe if we build less of them we can pay our police officers better.

 

Quote:And the divide just widened.

As someone stated, the cops are going to be even more on edge. Then one wonders if they'll profile? Who hates them more?

Cmon man. A peaceful rally, and some schmuck figures this action sends a clearer message?

Why do some lives matter more than others? Blue Lives, Black Lives?? Imo...it's a stupid, divisive slogan. It separates.

Can't agree more.  Fight the hate, and division spreads hatred.

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