...the LA county sheriff's dept. (or any other LE dept. for that matter) has a belt-fed machine gun in its' inventory? WTF possible use can a police dept. have for one of these? I understand that the cops need weapons appropriate to any forseeable threat, but a '60?! You gotta be sh*tting me!

A few years ago. about 15, The L.A. Swat team also had a Barret m82. While they denied it(and probably still do) they had one as well as at least 5 officers trained on how to use it.
In such an area as L.A., they really had no excuse to have this weapon, but they had it anyways.
Go figure.

Well I see more reason to have the Barret m82  than a machine gun.

My local PD has an HK21. I sleep better at night.

Here in the land of Meth Labs and prisons, belt feds in choppers are not too uncommon...

In reality, if every department had them, crime would be less!

Even as a cop, I've often asked myself the same question.  Last night a show on the History Channel answered it for me.  Back in the '20s and '30s Bonnie and Clyde had full auto BARs (.30-06) and the law had .38 revolvers.  Many times this superior fire power got them out of situations where they were totally surrounded.  It allowed them to stay on the run and kill innocent people much longer than they otherwise would have been able to.  

I think the whole point is for the same reason that many members on AR-15.com stockpile ammo and mags.  When you need it, you need it, and not having it really sucks and really costs lives.

I couldn't sleep knowing Bubba has a machine gun.

Ah-hem, um . . . sure you're not just jealous?

I am.

Like I said in the "Walking down your street" post..

I'm just waiting for the AH-1's, and AD-1's to turn up in police inventories.. Maybe a selection of "obsolete" artillery for "Barricaded Hostiles"..Give the negotiators their pink slips, and BLAST em out..


So what is it about the police looking like the military that worries me so?

Meplat

Let’s say the local donut shop only has filled donuts but you want plain glazed.
You could waste a lot of time blowing the filling out of them with your .40 Glock or you could line them up and hit them with the M-60

Or if some whacked out football player in a SUV is speeding down the freeway you could fly up in the helo. and put half a belt into his hood.

At midnight on the forth of July when the guys start shooting it up you can roll up in the squad car and show them what a real gun sounds like.
 

i guess if the shit really flew, and it somehow was nessesary, i would be glad the PD was packing that sorta heat. i guess the 60 wasnt really designed for any sort of police application, but who the hell knows. we always talk about SHTF. we all know 99.999999999% chance it wont happen, but were thinking about it just in case. you cant except the police not to do the same. and also, i would rather the PD had it than choping it up and scraping it.