A Well Regulated Militia . . .

[Hot Pepsi]

The military-industrial complex is as much about its own self-perpetuating ecosystem of lobbyists and consultants rather than any particular fear although it is also about an irrational fear of Muslims and China.

Same with the War on Drugs. It is partially fueled by a legitimate concern about drug abuse and the usual racism and xenophobia about Black and Brown people. But one shouldn’t underestimate what an enormous industry it is. Perhaps bigger than the illegal drug trade itself. It it has its own vested interests and lobbyists and what not.

Of course, both of these “war” industries are interconnected along with the “border security” mob.

This is France in 1775 kind of stuff.

[ursus arctos]

I hope the police are sued into oblivion.

We can all hope, but the level of immunity offered the police by Texas law (and as recently expanded by the Supreme Court) means that I will not be holding my breath.

[Hot Pepsi]

I suspect they’ll all lose their jobs, but that won’t help much.

[ursus arctos]

Yes, that's likely (along with the Mayor who seems to always carry a handgun in public).

But that will be of very little help to the victims and their families.

[caja-dglh]

Trying to work out how they will mess up the narrative of armed, trained representatives of law enforcement being.... possibly counterproductive?

I guess they were the odd sort of wrong good-guys with guns.

[scratchmonkey]

One of the recurrent rhetorical themes that you see in the more-gun-owning, more reactionary populations in California is "we'll see what happens to everybody living in <insert liberal enclave here> when the criminals come for them and they don't have any guns". It's a handy reinforcement of their own beliefs/behaviors, that we're constantly a millimeter away from complete societal disintegration (or for those of use who live somewhere "soft on crime", it's basically already happened), and that when it happens, only the people with guns will be safe.

[Cal Alamein]

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/mollyjongfast/status/1530347870339080194?s=21&t=6uQp7P9jfOOPD-fpWAsx9g

[caja-dglh]

Oh boy. The subsequent posts to that led me to the probable late discovery of an anti-Trump classic.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/jelani9/status/1530574882248998913?t=cCM7GnKdTqzQ_t-trN1ceg&s=19

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/kaivanshroff/status/1530593302906560512?s=21&t=emrLPF2H3URtOoCHtDwfoA

[Toby Gymshorts]

Spoiler: it made no difference.

[Amor de Cosmos]

It makes more difference than doing nothing, in a state where gun ownership is viewed as pretty much a birthright. At the very least it shows a significant portion of the Texan public cares enough about their fellow citizens to spend one day making themselves heard.

[Hot Pepsi]

One step to changing the culture is people saying that they don’t like the culture out loud so other people who get it know they aren’t alone and can speak up too.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/shimonpro/status/1530956686592196608?s=21&t=lw7SB7bE075F8l2TGZTZCQ

[San Bernardhinault]

As I keep saying, I don't think it's a coincidence that there's a lot of focus on the failings of a specific, small, local police force who can become a convenient scapegoat. You know that this isn't going to reflect on to any other police forces. And stops anyone wondering about the fucking guns.

Sure, they appear to have fucked up. But they're a police force for a city of 16,000. You wouldn't expect the police force for, say, Northallerton, to be an elite team capable of handing a mass shooting. Treating the issue as a local failing of a local police force who appear to be made up of what I'd assume would be the local hispanic population who probably don't have other jobs that are readily available, is a spectacularly good result for the gun lobby.

[DCI Harry Batt]

They get 40% of Uvalde's budget spent on them.

They seem like fairly typical cops, tbh - incompetent, cowardly liars. If this particular example doesn't reflect on other police department's, that's an indictment of the media and political classes.

[Hot Pepsi]

We’ll, we need to have a collective think about whether it makes sense for every hamlet, village and wide spot in the road to have its own police department.

Yes, state police and certain big city departments have a lot of issues, but it seems like a disproportionate number of these problems come from podunk local departments who report to a pretty amateur town council or mayor.

How does it work in other countries? Scotland has one department for the whole country now, doesn’t it?

[ursus arctos]

The most atypical thing about the Uvalde force is that it has a meaningful number of Latino officers (though not as many as there would be if it mirrored the population).

The fact that the chief is Latino is also not irrelevant to the way this is being spun.

[ursus arctos]

Other countries have both local and national police forces (and sometimes more than one national force), but I have never encountered anything like the USian "system" (which had about 18,000 different forces last time I looked).

[Hot Pepsi]

Pennsylvania has over 1,100 law enforcement departments. I think that number includes all the county sheriffs. We have over 2,000 municipalities, which is bananas. Even New Jersey is more sensible.

[ursus arctos]

It is insane

[Nocturnal Submission]

The UK situation, with some slightly out-of-date budget and personnel figures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._Kingdom#Table

[Hot Pepsi]

We’ll, if nothing else, that would probably be more efficient. Economies of scale.

[Various Artist]

https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1530941848730017792