As the violent images of Ferguson, Missouri permeate the media, a debate has erupted about the “militarization of police.” Some folks have been harshly critical of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) 1033 program, which delivers surplus military equipment to police departments for free.
“What a rip off! All you do is add is a few cents worth of rubber guards to your corners and call it rugged. The CPU of your rugged laptop is at least 2 years out of date. My regular old civilian laptop does a thousand things your laptop doesn’t. And rugged laptops are heavy, […]
Last July, Dallas police killed a suspected gunman with an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV). By any conceivable stretch of the imagination, this was a “good kill.” The gunman had murdered 5 policemen, threatened to kill more with hidden bombs, and refused to give up even after hours of negotiations. A credible threat against civilians had been made. […]
