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Editor’s note: When we produced the video “The Militarization of Our Police” in 2007, we received quite a few emails and comments about how the video was really talking about arming the SWAT tactical teams and how they needed these weapons to “fight crime.” A common thread in the comments cited the Los Angeles PD that was outgunned in the bank robbery of 1997. So now Boston, along with many other municipalities across the country are arming regular street patrol officers with these military grade weapons. Why? Is it because the economy is deteriorating and history shows social unrest usually follows say when people have no means to feed their families?
By Donovan Slack and Maria Cramer~The Boston Globe
The Boston Police Department is preparing a plan to arm as many as 200 patrol officers with semiautomatic assault rifles, a significant boost in firepower that department leaders believe is necessary to counter terrorist threats, according to law enforcement officials briefed on the plan.
The initiative calls for equipping specialized units, such as the bomb squad and harbor patrol, with the high-powered long-range M16 rifles first, the officials said. The department would then distribute the weapons to patrol officers in neighborhood precincts over the next several months, according to the two law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to speak publicly.
The officials did not know exactly when the department planned to start handing out the rifles but said police officials already have acquired the guns.
Police department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll declined to discuss any details of the plan yesterday. She said the plan was still in an “inquiry stage.â€
“Commissioner [Edward] Davis has not decided if he would like to move forward with this initiative,” she said. “At this time, absolutely no determination has been made.”
The M16 rifle is a standard, military-issue weapon distributed to US armed forces. It can be used in the field by soldiers with a fully automatic function, operating as a machine-gun, but the Boston proposal is to arm them the weapons for semiautomatic operation.
