Appropriate gear and weaponry for cops....

[LSP972]

I just stopped using mine in the last couple of years.

My old SL20, which I purchased the day after I got out of the academy, has been back to Germantown twice for a re-build over its useful life… and looks it. I still have a couple of extra bulb modules. Even though you learned pretty quick not to use it as an impact weapon when the switch is on (okay if the switch is off- those older models are pretty much bullet-proof), sometimes… the military calls it "exigent circumstances" … you gotta do what you gotta do. I blew two modules in one night during the Manville paper mill riots in the mid-80s. Those union mill hands got some hard heads…

Anyway, it now sits on my desk at the lab; a reminder that I was, at one time, a real cop.

.

[Tamara]

Even though you learned pretty quick not to use it as an impact weapon when the switch is on (okay if the switch is off- those older models are pretty much bullet-proof)...

Part of my Surefire® sales pitch used to be to suddenly, without telling the customer what I was about to do, turn around with my old incandescent Z2 Combatlight with the GG&G TID on it and whale on the wooden shelf behind me three or four times like I was trying to drive nails... with the light on the whole time.

The light only let me down once when I was doing that.

[LittleLebowski]

Did anyone answer if cops with tommychoppers are less intimidating than cops with AR15s?

[John Hearne]

Did anyone answer if cops with tommychoppers are less intimidating than cops with AR15s?

Don't know about intimidating but the Thompsons sure are classier.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

[LSP972]

Don't know about intimidating but the Thompsons sure are classier.

Indeed. But I sure wouldn't want to hump one of those heavy suckers (and an adequate supply of loaded magazines) very far.

.

[Alpha Sierra]

Did anyone answer if cops with tommychoppers are less intimidating than cops with AR15s?

They were wearing dress blues with white shirts, ties, and 12 point covers, so no.

[Tamara]

Did anyone answer if cops with tommychoppers are less intimidating than cops with AR15s?

Just getting off the phone with Shootin' Buddy who was relating the tale of Lafayette, Indiana's only riot-type disturbance, as related to him by his retired cop friend.

Seems that back during the Sixties, there was some draft-related hooraw across the Wabash in West Lafayette, where the university is, and the mob was headed for the bridges across the river, only to find each of them obstructed by a line of Lafayette's finest holding Thompsons. The marchers turned around and headed back toward campus, and that was about it as far as the Lafayette po-po were concerned.

[Coyotesfan97]

I started in 1987. I carried a Model 66 with two speed loaders. I had handcuffs, CS mace (that I never used), a nightstick, a radio, and a rechargeable Maglite. The flashlight was always on me. The night stick not so much. Suspects pretty much knew why it rested on your shoulder.

Now on my belt I have a Glock 17, 3 extra mags, handcuffs, OC spray (I like using it), pelican 7060, a PR24 in place of an ASP, a Pelican 8060, a radio, a Taser, and a heat alarm/door popper. It's all carried so none of it is in the small of my back..

That's not counting what I carry in my external carrier.

[JHC]

Just getting off the phone with Shootin' Buddy who was relating the tale of Lafayette, Indiana's only riot-type disturbance, as related to him by his retired cop friend.

Seems that back during the Sixties, there was some draft-related hooraw across the Wabash in West Lafayette, where the university is, and Athe mob was headed for the bridges across the river, only to find each of them obstructed by a line of Lafayette's finest holding Thompsons. The marchers turned around and headed back toward campus, and that was about it as far as the Lafayette po-po were concerned.

And that worked IMO because if push had come to shove the knuckleheads believed they could be chewed to pieces by those choppers. That is missing today.

[MDS]

People react emotionally to certain stimulus regardless of their political leanings. Images of the search for the Boston Bomber, Waco, Ruby Ridge, and Elion Gonzalez come to mind when the militarization of cops is brought up.

I don't disagree, but I think the emotional reaction thrives in a vacuum of information. Half of me wishes all cops wore gopro's all the time with live feeds to the internet so the facts would never be in question. The other half of me thinks this would backfire because we the public seem to think that a few months in an academy should guarantee 100% infallible perfect snap life and death judgments.