Sadly it might have to be especially since 9-11 this is becoming a us vs them society. And shouldn't the police have better weapons than the criminals ? We are better protected now.

I totally agree that the militarization of police is scary, unecessary and dangerous. I don't see why the JCPD needs that big black armored truck. That said, I hate hyberbole, and saying a M16 can "spit out hundreds of rounds per minute" gives an incorrect impression. An M16 has a 30-round magazine, and it's rarely fired on the automatic setting anyway, since it's wildly inaccurate. it has a cyclic rate in the hundreds, which is entirely different.

Okay, there's my useless information that nobody asked for.

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Sadly, this is the perfect excuse for all those looney militia groups to keep arming themselves.

Philosophically, I have serious issues with municipal and county police armed with such weapons, and I think it is a mistake to allow it to get any worse. I have traveled all over the US, and I have to say I have come across police officers in small towns that are the epitome of the bumbling, small minded, redneck, ass-backwards stereotype often portrayed in movies and TV. Think Barney Fife! To imagine someone like that, armed with military weapons and a trigger happy attitude, is a very sobering thought.

What a waste of taxpayers money - law and order has nothing to do with weapons. We should be investing in technology and 'smarter' better educated officers. We as a city and State do very little for our youth, crime prevention and ways to mitigate anti-social behavior. Having a grenade launcher is social control gone mad - It sends a message that we are a social time bomb and anarchy could explode at any time.

Guns, armor and a grenade launcher: Do N.J. cops need weapons of war?

By Ted Sherman & Carla Astudillo
August 24, 2014 at 1:45 AM

In the parking lot of Middletown police headquarters sits a 14-ton armored fighting vehicle designed to withstand roadside improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.

Jersey City police have the firepower of an army, with an inventory of 155 surplus M16 military assault rifles, able to spit out hundreds of rounds a minute.

And the Bergen County Sheriff?s Office has a grenade launcher.

Over the past two decades, law enforcement agencies in New Jersey have acquired surplus military gear worth $32.8 million ? including hundreds of automatic rifles, night vision scopes, laser range finders, combat knives, armored trucks, three helicopters and the grenade launcher ? all free of charge.

The equipment, made available under a congressionally mandated program set up in the 1990s in response to concerns that local police departments were being outgunned amid a growing plague of violent crime, went to communities across the state, from the city of Newark to the quiet bay town of Barnegat. The program has accelerated with the wind down of the nation?s involvement in the Middle East, bringing a flood of unneeded war material back from the battlefields and onto the streets of communities large and small.

But the federal program ? which, since its inception, has funneled $5.1 billion worth of hardware and supplies to more than 8,000 departments across the country ? has come into sharp focus since the events in Ferguson, Mo. In the wake of the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer on Aug. 9, images of demonstrators clashing with police clad in black tactical armor, carrying Army assault weapons and riding the streets atop hulking armored trucks like the one parked in Middletown have captured national attention.

At issue is the militarization of police, and questions have arisen over whether it is appropriate for civilian law enforcement agencies to be deploying weapons of war on the streets of the United States.

Read more at nj.com