Thread by @LorenCrowe

A few weeks ago @CambridgePolice told the Council that they had no military equipment.

That was a laughably incorrect statement at the time, but the council said sure but release your property inventory.

So they did! and Guess what? SO MUCH MILITARY EQUIPMENT! (Thread!) #CambMA

For starters, according to CPD, they own 49 Colt M4 rifles. The M4 carbine is a lighter version of the US Army's iconic M16 rifle, and has replaced the M16 as the standard US weapon for most ground forces. 2/

I carried an M4 just like CPD's in Afghanistan. CPD even bought the same sights that I had in my light infantry unit fighting in the most contested province of the country. 3/

(Worth noting here that when Cambridge resident @crschmidt brought up the question of whether CPD had M16s, CPD denied it flatly without mentioning that they'd upgraded to M4s. Anyone who knows anything about these weapons knows CPD lied by omission.)

https://twitter.com/CambridgePolice/status/1275491442232868869?s=20

Next, we have CPD's four Super 90 12 gauge shotgun. I'm calling this military equipment because of the combat grip and sling. This kind of shotgun isn't for killing birds. It's for killing people. We were issued similar weapons in Afghanistan 4/

Next, holy smokes, CPD has 14 H&K MP5s. This weapon was developed for West German special forces, and Many variants have been produced. Versions of the light assault rifle have found their way into the hands of most of the world's militaries, including US Navy SEALs (right) 5/

Oh wait, there's more. in addition to the 14 (presumably) semi-automatic MP5s CPD owns, they have 4 that are FULLY AUTOMATIC. A fully automatic MP5 can fire up from 700 rounds per minute.

Here's what that looks like 6/

(I'm not going to keep going line by line, because there's a lot of this stuff. (Most of those "Compliance Crowd Control items are different kinds of nasty "less than lethal" grenades that get fired out of grenade launchers.) 7/

Oh wait, but here's a bunch of sniper rifles CPD owns. A Remington 700 can kill someone from almost a kilometer away. 8/

Here are some totally normal police uniforms that CPD owns. Actually, these look just like what I wore on my first deployment to Afghanistan as an Infantry platoon leader. That camo pattern is called "Universal Camouflage Pattern" and was all the rage in the US Army circa 2008 9/

There's a *lot* of protective gear in here. Some of it is absolutely fair to have and could save a life, but a lot of it is highly out of line with the threats CPD faces. Those groin protectors, for instance, aren't very useful except to protect against IED blasts. 10/

Hardly noticeable on the inventory is CPD's armored personnel carrier they sent to a peaceful BLM event to show people who's boss.

CPD's refers to it as a Lenco F350. The manufacturer calls it a BearCat G3 and sells an almost identical version, the G2, to the military 11/

Far from having no military equipment, @CambridgePolice has lots of military equipment. They have assault rilfes, light machine guns, grenades, and camouflage uniforms. They have an armored vehicle that belongs in Afghanistan.

CPD is a *fully* militarized police force. 12/

Which leaves us with many questions. What are they getting ready for? What do they think of the city they're hired to police? Are we that much of a threat? Is this what we want? What does the image of a warrior cop teach our children about the police? Are *they* dangerous? 13/

We need to wrestle with these questions as a community. But we also need to acknowledge that CPD leadership told the Council in no uncertain terms that it has no military equipment, revealing a stunning lack of awareness of the sate and appearance of our police department. 14/

If CPD is going to be a community partner in the transformation to come, it needs to come to grips with how it conducts itself, how it misleads the public, and how ready to go on offense it looks when it straps itself in armor and rolls down our streets. /End

One more thing! You can see the inventories that CPD released here: cambridgema.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detai…