Stopping guns and skipping stones

[SecularMotion]

Perhaps the only good things that have come out of gun violence in America are the brilliant movies that have been made about it. Independent Lens will screen two of the best in a two-night event on PBS called “Armed in America.”

Both films follow the transformation of conservatives who are initially pro-gun, but after enlightening experiences become advocates of gun control legislation and the reform of police use of deadly force.

Brad Barber and Scott Christopherson’s “Peace Officer” (Monday at 9?p.m.) tells the story of “Dub” Lawrence, a former sheriff who established and trained Utah’s first SWAT team. Thirty years later, that same unit gunned down his son-in-law, who was armed and despondent after an incident of domestic violence.

Lawrence found the circumstances suspicious. In the film, he examines the evidence and builds a case against law enforcement involved in the shooting, and more generally against arming the nation’s police with advanced military weaponry. It is both a detective story and a spiritual odyssey.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2016/05/05/stopping-guns-and-skipping-stones/mebd49DZ6b66pv1WVbjErI/story.html

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

1. Heavily armed cops.....

.....are not a gun control problem.

They're a Cop Control Problem.

Oh, I just thought of a new DU Group - Cop Control

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. One of the police depts near me got a new toy

worth about $750,000. Fun times.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

4. If all you have is a hammer....

...everything looks like a nail.

If all you drive is an armored vehicle....

...every civilian looks like......?

This is where they get all that crap...

http://gsaxcess.gov/

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. Armored vehicles are so yesterday ...

... this baby is "mine-resistant". Because our little piece of suburbia has a big problem with mines, y'know.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

6. So that's an MWRAP...?

Never saw one before.

WTF type of image are they projecting to the public???

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. I only saw it once on the road.

The "image" I saw was a very slow-moving white elephant, sucking tax dollars and blocking traffic. I was glad when the road widened and I could zip around it. It was doing 20 in a 35 zone. I think if such a vehicle were necessary for a police action, I'd call in the National Guard.

A ridiculous toy.

(In my day, "mine-resistant" meant taking the steel pot off your head and sitting on it. )

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

8. Just your friendly neighborhood....

....robocop.

Unreal.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

9. Friendly, yeah. It wasn't painted "cheery desert sand" like the photo I linked to.

The one I saw was flat-black, with the name of the police department "ghosted" on the side in dark charcoal gray.

Truly ominous-looking.

[ileus]

2. Odd....sounds scripted.

No one that's really safety minded is going to flip so easily.