Friday, August 22, 2014

Where Did ‘Military-Style’ Police Gear in Ferguson Come From? Hint: It’s Not Necessarily the Pentagon

“The ‘cool guy,’ load-bearing gear is frankly a lot better than we give soldiers,” Steven Bucci, director of Heritage’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, told The Daily Signal.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

When we had all these revelations with NSA spying and IRS targeting, etc., there was some outcry but what happened? They all just flipped us the bird, dug in, and doubled-down.

When it comes to the militarization of police, the same thing will happen here.

The dogs will bark, but the caravan keeps on rolling.

Anonymous said...

Actually the claim it was not DoD is BS. All the quibbles stated can be eliminated quite easily. Tear gas launchers are not authorized, Tear Gas Rounds are no specific to any launcher. You can fire a 40MM HE Round a Fragmentary Round or a Gas or Smoke Round from the same launcher. Anyone with knowledge of M79 or M203 will tell you that, BS. Anyone who claims that a gas round is not fired from a standard issue grenade launcher has no concept of military weapons. Gas rounds do come in the 40MM variety and the military does have them, first hand exeprience here folks.

The Luepold Mark4 on the rifle of the so called sniper/SDM was designed and engineered for the SEALs by Luepold, of course the DoD has them. Some groups like the SEALs are moving over to NighForce optics so I am sure that the Luepolds are becoming available. The armor carriers are the same Coyote Brown as the USMC uses and that makes sense since they are wearing MARPAT camo BDUs. I can see this as a package deal from the Marines stock. And deltoid armor is standard on all military armor carriers. They are detachable and the GIs just don't like to use it sometimes. If you have an inspection you sure better have them with your kit.

I don't know where this poor demented individual gets their information but I have devoted a lot of time to research and knowledge to the matter as well as using the stuff. Also do you think certain groups like the SEALS and SF werar GI goods all the time??? Hell no! The dress for the occcasion. If they don't want to appear as American GIs they will use commercial gear of a military pattern. The Eagle brand is just one. Lundon Bridge Trading ia another and shops like Tacticle Tailor are all over the place. Black Water had their own line from Michaels of Oregon, hell Condor Tactical is approved for use by the Military as well as BAE.

BS is all I can say. People need to be informed before they put their pie hole into gear.

Flighterdoc said...

No, the military just provides well-worn stuff to police.

The entire police/militarization industry, comprised of equipment manufacturers, uniform makers, trainers, etc are all part of it too.

But remember - if there was no market in the first place, there would be no industry.

Anonymous said...

If much of it what the police in the US are getting is indeed even-better-than the kit our regular military gets, what's it matter where the money OR the equipment itself came from? If it's to "military specs"_or_better, isn't that still the definition of "militarized"?

Shit! The SS didn't give their guys off-the-shelf gear/equipment either. Please, argue to me how the SS weren't militarized!

Speaking of the "military-style, small arms related equipment industry" . . . Prepared-minded people will likely discover that (without retail options available) depending on milsurp to fill the gap was a bad decision!

Paradoxically - and as has been pointed out, time and time again (by someone requiring no introduction here!) - 4GW _will_ provide. Of that there is really no doubt; and top-shelf-gear will inevitably be readily available to the "dirty, unwashed masses" anyway.

Anonymous said...

If much of it what the police in the US are getting is indeed even-better-than the kit our regular military gets, what's it matter where the money OR the equipment itself came from? If it's to "military specs"_or_better, isn't that still the definition of "militarized"?

Shit! The SS didn't give their guys off-the-shelf gear/equipment either. Please, argue to me how the SS weren't militarized!

Speaking of the "military-style, small arms related equipment industry" . . . Prepared-minded people will likely discover that (without retail options available) depending on milsurp to fill the gap was a bad decision!

Paradoxically - and as has been pointed out, time and time again (by someone requiring no introduction here!) - 4GW _will_ provide. Of that there is really no doubt; and top-shelf-gear will inevitably be readily available to the "dirty, unwashed masses" anyway.

Anonymous said...

I live near a major military installation and there are shops that cater to the Mercs , cops and special forces . I have never seen some of the gear outside of these shops . It is all VERY expensive . I love to browse and try to understand how some of this gear is used in the field . They even have vehicles for sale/lease to LE types.