Growing number of Canadian police forces bulking up with armoured vehicles

?It doesn?t seem to me like a big step toward militarization of this organization. It?s just providing the basic tool that members need to do their job and protect the public,?

That's because it takes a lot of little steps to get there.

Don't worry Doc.

No city in Canada has a really large black population, and no one is allowed to get
offended at Muslims. Or Natives.
Damn, I almost forgot about them, like the rest of the country will in 10 years.

So, that means the armour and stuff is only for the hockey games.

There are soldiers with guns in our cities(in Toronto's case snow shovels)......wait, naw it's just a traffic stop

I do NOT like the continued militarization of our police forces. They are not trained for it, nor should they play soldier, they have a different mandate.

I would agree with that stance when it comes to municipal. However, the RCMP have been a para military police force since their inception.

granted, yes the RCMP do also have a different mandate than local, municipal or provincial police forces.

But I disagree with "Moose Jaw" getting an armoured vehicle...it's not only overkill, but outside the realm of what a local police unit should be focusing on, and way out of their depth for training.

Indeed. A very wise military leader agrees with you:



I'll also add that the misuse of military vehicles on domestic soil justifies the right of the citizenry to arm themselves with anti-tank weapons to protect themselves.

The RCMP don't serve large cities where large riots are mostly likely, so they are even less in need of heavy weaponry. Their mandate, as far as I can see is exactly the same as municipal forces, except maybe in the far north - where they really aren't going to need that stuff.

Always important to take note of this.

I don't like it either, but there are substantial numbers of local police officers across the country that actually are ex-military, so some of them are trained for it.

They also get additional training in marksmanship, hostage negotiation, bomb disposal and other specialized tasks that regular cops don't get prior to joining the Tactical Unit/SWAT team. I don't know about cops in other jurisdictions, but in Edmonton, they have to serve a minimum of eight years before they can even try to get on the Tactical Team.

http://www.joineps.ca/AboutEPS/CareerPr ... tical.aspx

I actually saw a Tactical Officer at the parts department of a local Dodge dealership here this week - they don't seem all that frightening to me...

tactical.jpg

I'm sure our local police forces have their share of heavier equipment. In light of what they chose to deploy during the last Stanley Cup riot, tho, I don't think we have much to complain about. Very low key response, with just some standard riot gear and some dogs, and even that was deployed way too late after things got way out of control, because "we didn't expect a riot." What we saw at the G20 tho, not so much about equipment but tactics, that was excessive.

Oh c'mon those gophers out on south hill can be killers and that armoured vehicle would be the perfect solution to the problem.

Indeed. A very wise military leader agrees with you:



I'll also add that the misuse of military vehicles on domestic soil justifies the right of the citizenry to arm themselves with anti-tank weapons to protect themselves.

I love that quote

Everybody ammo up and free RPG's to the first 100 paying customers.