Group protesting police purchasing M4s

[ericire12]

http://www.chitowndailynews.org/Chicago_news/Protest_slated_over_police_assault_rifle_plan,17272

A group opposed to the Chicago Police Department’s plan to arm street cops with M4 semiautomatic assault rifles is planning to get their point across to the police board tonight.

Members of the Southwest Youth Collaborative, an advocacy group based on the city’s South side, say they have collected more than 5,000 signatures from people opposed to the plan.

The petition, to be presented to Mayor Richard M. Daley, Police Commissioner Jody P. Weis and other city leaders, says the group is against “the militarization of the Chicago Police Department, our youth, and our low-income communities of color,” and wants the city to reverse course and seeks a public meeting on the issue.

The group is staging a "Live In Peace - Chicago Youth Rally," scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. tonight at police headquarters, 3510 S. Michigan Ave.  The police board meeting starts at 7:30 p.m.

The Chicago Police Department wants to add the M4 to its arsenal because they can hold 30 rounds, twice as many as a typical 9 mm side arm, and because the semiautomatic rifles have a much greater range.

Weis and Mayor Richard M. Daley have said Chicago's cops, outgunned by an increasing number of criminals toting assault weapons, needed more firepower.

But last month, a Daily News review of federal firearms statistics suggests the number of assault weapons seized from Illinois criminals is not on the rise. Nor is the number of homicides committed with rifles in the nation. And rifles have been responsible on average for 15 percent of officer deaths each of the last six years.

Meanwhile, firearms experts say bullets from the M4 can travel nearly twice as far as those from a handgun, potentially posing risks for bystanders. And some policing specialists say equipping beat cops with military style weapons sends a message to police and citizens that combat, not cooperation, is the goal.

Several urban police departments in the United States, including the Miami Police Department, already use the M4 carbine.

[MikeBjerum]

the group is against “the militarization of the Chicago Police Department, our youth, and our low-income communities of color,”

So ... would it be ok if they were going into white neighborhoods 

Hasn't anyone out there noticed that police more and more look like military with the other gear they wear?  Have you looked at a picture from the RNC convention in St. Paul?  Change the uniforms from black to camo and you've got the middle east.  Can we say tools of the trade?

[TAB]

I am a big beleaver in, if the public can't buy it, then the police should not be able too.

[Hazcat]

Give them a good revolver and a lever gun.  Just as effective and less 'in your face'.  After all they are cops not paramilitary.

[ericire12]

I am a big beleaver in, if the public can't buy it, then the police should not be able too.

?

[Sponsor]

[ericire12]

Give them a good revolver and a lever gun.  Just as effective and less 'in your face'.  After all they are cops not paramilitary.

Remington makes a pump action .223 for just that reason - image.

[Hazcat]

Yeah, I've seen it.  If I was gonna buy a .223 that is probably the one I would get.

[TAB]

Remington makes a pump action .223 for just that reason - image.

I actually got too shoot one of those a couple years back... it feels exactly like a 870, just a diffrent recoil.   Which was thier idea with the gun, give them something they are use to using, only with a rifle round rather then shot.

[MikeBjerum]

If I am going to switch from what I see to what I believe should be:

1.  Can anyone imagine trying to walk a beat with an M-4 on top of everything else;

2.  Can you imagine an officer in close quarters picking through the different weapons options;

3.  Can you imagine the amount of training to keep all these officers current in the uses and proficiency of these weapons ... all this added to what they already need.

I am basically with Haz.  A good reliable handgun, spare magazines (or clips if you chose that type of handgun), and practice for proficiency!

[deepwater]

And some policing specialists say equipping beat cops with military style weapons sends a message to police and citizens that combat, not cooperation, is the goal.

Maybe this is what the hoodlums need to think. I honestly don't think they need that much firepower, as Haz says.. image. maybe a different weapon with a little less range. the article says they're concerned with range and bystanders and I think that's a legitimate concern. but they do look cool.