Why does the Hagerstown Police Department need 33 AR-15 rifles? (Update)

I was reading The Herald-Mail newspaper Monday when I read a piece about how the Hagerstown Police Department is obtaining 33 AR-15 “patrol” rifles from the Washington County Sherrif Department. They were purchased by the Washington County Narcotics Task Force. In other news, Washington County evidently has its own narcotics task force.

In a former life, before the coronavirus pandemic, I was an Uber and Lyft driver. There’s not a square inch of Hagerstown I have not been to. Because of this fact, I  don’t understand why the police need to arm themselves with AR-15 semi-automatic battle rifles to patrol Hagerstown. It’s not that kind of city.  Hagerstown is not Fallujah.

Militarizing civilian police officers is stupid

I think arming civilian police with military weapons and equipping them with military uniforms is a dumb idea. It would be better to just deploy the U.S. military to patrol our streets. At least then they would have real oversite. Military members are governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Civilian police officers are members of a union. They cover for each other when one of them breaks the law. Members of the military almost never cover for each other. They hold each other accountable to the UCMJ.

It’s against the law to use the military on or above American soil for law enforcement purposes. Instead of giving the AR-15 battle rifle to police officers, it would be cheaper to just assign the U.S. Army to police American streets. Besides, if the U.S. Army was providing our police duties, they wouldn’t pick and choose what laws they would enforce. The U.S. Army does not get to choose what laws they will ignore. Laws are considered orders in the military.

Furthermore, if 33 AR-15 rifles are sent to the Hagerstown Police Department, there’s a good chance at least some of them will end up on eBay. Can you sell AR-15 rifles on eBay?

An update

With all the needless riots taking place in response to Miniappolous police officer killing George Floyd, I now see why the Hagerstown Police Department acquired 33 AR-15 battle rifles. If anything, I’m now left wondering if 33 rifles were enough. I think they need more than 33.