Last night, four people were shot in Southeast DC in a drive-by shooting by an attacker using a semi-automatic high power rifle. It comes at a time when the District is in the process of arming their police department with the same types of weapons. Despite the draconian gun laws in the District, nearly 3000 guns were recovered last year from people arrested in DC and as last night’s shooting demonstrates, the Metro cops are in dangered of being outgunned.
CBS Channel 9 did a report last night on the impending issuance of more powerful weapons to DC cops last night and they interviewed a member of the ACLU named Johnny Barnes whose concern is more with keeping with the District’s gun laws than the ability of the police to protect the public.
Phil Mendelson, District council member, also expressed concerns about the asthetics of having a fully prepared police department. He complained that the question came down to whether we want our police force to look like a military force or a police force.
It just highlights that the Left places more importances on appearances than safety – the same way they approach the discussion of war. How will it look to the rest of the world? Just like everything else, the Left is more concerned with the emotional aspect of the issue than the reality of it.
The ACLU needs to be reminded of the B of A robbery in LA when the cops were so badly outgunned.
Jonn wrote: To their credit, the local news (CBS Channel 9) did indeed show footage from that bank robbery. But the ACLU isn’t on the the side of police or justice.
Oh, what the hell: their cars already say “MPDC;” why can’t they look like military police?
Screw the ACLU.
While I certainly don’t support the ACLU, I do think that putting AR-15s on the street may not be the most appropriate response. At close range, the .223 round will likely overpenetrate the target, thereby putting others at risk.
Instead of AR-15s, I think that having 10mm MP-5s (which, I think are designated as MP-10s) would solve the majority of the problems. The 10mm round has a greater “punch” than 9mm weapons, but doesn’t suffer from the overpenetration issues of a 3,000 fps .223 round.
Whichever weapon is chosen, however, an issue typically overlooked is the number of thefts of police cars and their equipment. It is not an infrequent problem in D.C.
Good grief, sounds like Caracas where the cops are so out armed they do not even respond to calls in certain areas!
The over penetration of 9 and 10mm rounds is something we up here in NY answered a long time ago. I saw some really nifty footage of a auto 12ga. a while back that looked to answer the problem of urban warfare. Large projectiles plenty of punch at short distances and no real ability to carry much beyond the noise the put out. Sorry 7 beers in after escorting the “Traveling Wall” and it seemed like I had something to say.Oh yeah I don’t figure the ACLU would like the 12ga much either.