There is some violent shit out on the streets...

[kentuck]

Especially with gang warfare and automatic weapons in the hands of hoods.

This is why many police felt under pressure when trying to fight crime in these neighborhoods. Indeed, it became like a war zone to them. Because, in many ways, it was.

That was the beginning of the militarization of our present-day police force - not to say it hasn't being going on forever, in some way or other.

It has now progressed to this point. Police forces are looking for combat veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan to join their forces. They have become more similar to a military unit than an ordinary police unit. Give them a tank and, sooner or later, someone will have to shoot it.

But this seems to me to be the direction we are headed?

[JaneyVee]

1. No one has automatic weapons.

And cops could dismantle gangs, they choose not to.

[RKP5637]

2. Definitely if it goes unchecked. More violence is seldom the solution to violence. IMO in

Ferguson, all the cops did was to escalate the violence.

[redqueen]

3. Ending the so-called 'war on drugs' would help. nt

[HuckleB]

4. Bad things still happen, but: Study: Gun homicides, violence down sharply in past 20 years

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/08/us/study-gun-homicide/

Violent crime has been decreasing for a long time, so the increase in police force militarization does not compute.

[leftynyc]

5. I can only speak for my own city

but New York is WAY safer now than it was 25-30 years ago. I was under the impression that crime is down in all big cities over the last couple of decades. Could it be we're more aware because of all the visuals that come with 24 hour cable, the internet and social media?

[kentuck]

6. Perhaps so?

But I think a lot of police units have used "fighting gangs" as the excuse to militarize.

[bettyellen]

14. the affluent areas are, but they have worked very hard to reduce reporting of violent crime, by not

taking reports, or using lower codes in their reports to minimize the appearance of violent incidents in their individual precincts.
They actually have not been tasked with trying to get the violent offenders off the streets. Giuliani started the pressure on precints by instituting a data base of all precints and demanding stats go down- all to improve the "quality of life" statistics and nothing else.
I know lots of good cops were rightfully disgusted by it, a few tried to blow the whistle too. I think the Village Voice did a series on it years ago. They tried to claim the whistle blower was crazy. He was only crazy to tell the truth publicly.

[leftynyc]

16. Not so

In the outer boroughs there are still some areas I wouldn't go to but there is nowhere on the island of Manhattan I wouldn't go to, day or night. It's why the stop and frisk policy was so controversial - many knew it was unfair and racist but they couldn't ignore that crime was way down. I don't think the two are related at all but many, many New Yorkers do.

[bettyellen]

17. Gentrification has had more of an impact than anything else. A lot of areas that were deserted and

so appeared dangerous, in both Manahattan and Bklyn, are now built up and modern. Physically, the city has changed a great deal.
I'm not sure how your own feelings of personal safety is relevant to my comments about the drive to underreport violent crime, but it is indeed a thing that was driven to "improve" the city's quality of life stats. A thing driven by the mayor's office. Gentrification then followed.
I really never felt unsafe anywhere, I guess because I grew up in a neighbor hood that would frighten those who think "Manhattan" is NYC, or the only part of NYC that actually matters. It is not.

[TheKentuckian]

7. They ain't fighting gangs, the drug war fosters gangs and then cops pretend need but use the shit on

us while letting g the gangs run amok.

It's lies anyway. There aren't fucking Mad Max gangs running wild all around the nation and they don't have automatic weapons in any statistically significant number if at all.

Gangs are almost completely fueled by vice laws at this point, the system demands their existence.

[alarimer]

9. No, it's about the "Us vs. Them" mentality of police.

So long as they see people in the community as "the other" stuff like this will continue to happen.

[Bragi]

10. Militarised policing is the new Jim Crow. /nt

[Downwinder]

11. Cops are a gang.

[JEB]

12. My thoughts as well.

A very dangerous gang.

[Live and Learn]

13. Yep, quite similar to Mafia in my opinion. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

15. The picture you paint is utter bullshit hyperbole. A war zone? It's not even one of the 10 most

dangerous jobs in the US. Occupations with greater rates of fatal injury than Police Officers include loggers, fishers, roofers, refuse and recycling workers, pilots and flight engineers, electrical line workers, farmers, truckers, construction laborers.....
All of these things, more dangerous than this alleged 'war zone' which causes so much 'pressure' to the precious officers in relatively safe jobs with excellent benefits and compensation.