Charles Pierce: Everything is in midair and could go in any direction.

[kpete]

Charles Pierce:

Over the weekend, so many chickens came home to so many roosts that, by and large, it was hard to differentiate one from the others. But one stood out among the rest. For decades, we have heard the warnings about turning civilian police departments into quasi-military shock troops. For decades, courtesy of a misguided Pentagon policy, we have watched cops in even the smallest towns outfit themselves as though just beyond the Piggly Wiggly lay Normandy or Fallujah. Police training, where it existed at all, lagged hopelessly behind the armaments. Some $4.3 billion in military equipment was handed over, gratis, to local police departments. You can’t have this equipment and not use it, and you have to have a certain mentality to use that equipment the way it was meant to be used—to wit: to protect yourself and to kill enemies, somewhere out there beyond the gunports. The vehicles are armored, and the vision of the people driving them narrows. They live in frightening psychological isolation with the crosshairs in their eyes.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a32731993/police-riot-george-floyd-protests/

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[underpants]

2. How 'bout NO?

I have this image of Trump in the bunker like Dr. Evil. Totally out of his element and thinking he knows what he’s doing.

[dameatball]

3. Pierce is right. But this analogy could also extend to gun ownership in general. Perhaps I have a

personality quirk, but when I see these armed militia types strutting around, the same question always pops into my head: "How can that asshole afford all that shit and why is it worth it to them?" The answer of course is always plainly in front of me and in the past I refused to believe it. The answer is they feel that they will find an excuse to use it.
Many people are responsible gun owners. I own a few, although none have been fired in many years. That being said, I have never felt the desire to go all full G. I. Joe, with all the high end arms and tactical gear. Why would I spend hard earned money on that crap unless I believed it would ultimately be used?

[renate]

4. I always assumed it was just cosplay but now I'm not so sure

[dameatball]

5. I thought that too, for a while.

[crickets]

6. Pierce is always outstanding, but this piece is one of his best.

It dovetails nicely with a post from last night courtesy of DUer swag:

Evidence-based practices for reducing police violence
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213518155