Quote: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.


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

All fair points, with one exception... you are assuming that without the military equipment that a casualty would occur.


There's a distinct possibility that a well trained police mediator, given enough time for the stand off to occur, would have been able to get the killer to give himself up.


But when you have a chill gadget, who cares to negotiate?


I just think that we should take pause and realize that policing can occur with outcomes just as good, if not better, without militarizing officers.


To assume that only positive outcomes come via military tactics within our cities is not something I will ever accept as ok. It's part of the systemic failure of this particular institution, in my opinion.

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