Walton, Robert <robert.walton3@us.army.mil>Re: "The State Department is preparing to notify Congress that it wants to permit U.S. companies to sell the Haitian police $1.9 million worth of equipment, including 3,000 .38-caliber pistols, several hundred rifles and shotguns, and non-lethal equipment for crowd control, the spokesman said." To protect approximately eight million citizens spread over five urbanized boroughs/counties, the New York City PD numbers about 40,000, each of whom normally carries at least a high-capacity semi-automatic pistol. Five thousand poorly armed police to protect approximately six million Haitians (55% in major cities and 45% spread out in a country about the size of Maryland) from better-armed criminals and renegade ex-military is a cause for alarm. IMHO, they need more armed police, not fewer! Concern over providing three thousand .38-caliber pistols, several hundred rifles and shotguns, etc. is bogus. The real concern is the quality, character and values of the policemen who receive them. It boils down to the question of the values that Haitian parents teach their children. Bob Walton waltonr@hotmail.com |