[mortyseinfeld]

The only reason to have these types of equipment is because of an "us against them" attitude of the cops. And the "them" isn't just "criminals".

But that's what you get when you vote in folks that demand that government be the center of attention of everybody's lives.

[badsock]

What's your reasoning for places like Switzerland and Norway, where the government is much more involved in day-to-day life, but less militarized in that involvement? Same goes for most of the European countries, and Canada/New Zealand et al. as well.

Certainly you could point out other countries with both a lot of government involvement and a militarized police force, but I think there's a strong argument that the two are orthogonal - that the degree of plutocracy is a better correlation.

[a3n]

> But that's what you get when you vote in folks that demand that government be the center of attention of everybody's lives.

It's useful to separate what they say ("Big government!" "Small government!") from what they actually do: more resources to any agency in their portfolio.

The bigger your agency(ies), the bigger your dick, and the more likely your re-election.

[streetnigga]

I'm sorry this partisan mush has to stop. Even "small government" champions have engorged this industry and yes, many members of Bush Sr/Jr, Clinton and Obama's admin have gone to form companies that contract with entities like the NSA/Military/Police.

This "vote in people that demand the government be the center of attention" is almost exactly what I read on highly partisan sites like Fox News so it's utterance immediately brings forward an image of hypocrisy and little room to be made via discussion.

"It's THEIR fault." Those pesky folks, how dare they vote. Perhaps if more would take action in local/state/federal elections. Specially directly as becoming a candidate as someone I know in Oregon did. Anything but commenting like a writer from Drudge Report.