Massachusetts police get black uniforms to instill sense of 'fear'

Right. I'm sure that a black man driving a bmw in a nice neighborhood doesn't fear that he'll eventually get stopped, wrongly accused, or shot to death as it is.

Why does it have to be black gloves?! There trying to say black automatically scares people. I dont like it...some things never change......

ooo i'm so scared!!

ice cream man, i guess the proof will be in the pudding.

we'll see if it works or not. you'd be amazed at what symbolism is capable of.

for example, an ad campaign in Australia took issue with oversized motor vehicles by relating them to the smallness of a man's penis (he honks and revs his engine, she holds out her pinky and giggles withi her girlfriends). It was majorly effective in driving down the sale of oversized vehicles in Australia.

black does scare people btw

police state anyone?

"Just look at any motorcycle cops uniform.
Knee high black boots, elbow length gauntlet gloves, mirror glasses.
Your Papers Please!"

Yep! Once we get that National ID or the implanted RFID chip implants, we'll be fully apartheid. Restriction of movement and absolutely no rights.

We're headed right to a police state.

Why is the cop in the photograph injecting himself?

But, anyway, I kind of think this will just be a waste of time. I doubt uniform color is on the mind of criminals.

lol this picture actually made me a little nervous NcSchu so I used it

If the color black scares people, then thats almost like saying black people scare everyone.

Didn't the Nazi's have those scary 'brown shirt' guys? Maybe brown is scarier? Then there's red . . .

Maybe they should wear pink 'littish red' - that would certainly stop people in their tracks.

'Blackwater' America's own private, army, police, instruments of a 'decider' who decided, if it's unconstitutional to use our own military against us, he will use his own private military.

Are there are any rules governing their behavior? We don't want Iraq justice. American justice worked for many years. 'Blackwater' is bidding for contracts to work in the United States. They would not bid if there weren’t a plan for their usage!

When they are done, Americans won't be able to distinguish between public and private police. That explains the need to go black. Blackwater has done some pretty terrible things in Iraq with no accountability. Do you really think we will have accountability in the future if they are here?

‘Martial law’ made easy, with 'private police' ready to co-mingle with regular local police. Problem is they will change our local police mentality to theirs (crash and burn) justice. Blackwater (a private army) is something to FEAR!

WHATS NEXT..... STORM TROOPERS

This is a terrible idea. Most people hate cops as it is and black, militaristic uniforms are NOT going to help in creating a healthy relationship between the general public and the authorities. Many people know the power of the law and don't need fascist undertones to remind them of that. If the authorities are worried about youth violence they should discover the reasons for it, not attempt to scare us with new uniforms.

At least I can call them stormtroopers and mean it now!

So They Wanna look like SS black coat=Similar to what Hitler's Troop's looked like...Shame on Them,Say NO to NEO-Conservative Murder's..Plus Remember Stalin Yes Stalin in order for him to Make his own UNION not Labor union's or Workforce Union's..But GLOBAL UNION's HE KILLED OVER 28 MILLION People to Create the Soviet UNION-HE KILLED OFF THE MIDDLE CLASS,In order to Contribute to his part of the New World Order...Stalin,Hitler,Mussolini and Japanese Imperialist's were all evil,..plus the Dishonorable and disloyal Imperialist's try to use the Honor and Loyalty of "Legend of the Samurai",to brain wash the japanese into believe that what they where doing was Good...Shame on them..Dont let history repeat itself..1

going with the whole black leather fetish thing - if cops would just dress up as full on macho gay anal dominators they would scare the hell out of everyone so much that no cop would need to carry a gun - trust me .

Those uniforms aren't scary, they're sexy! You can arrest me Mr. Officer, I've been very, very naughty....

Black=Fear. Who knew? It's one step away from the old cowboy movie concept...White=Good, Black=Evil.

Black for fear, huh? So I take it the shields will soon be replaced by skulls... and motto of "To Protect and Serve" will be replaced with "Obey or Die"... and the truncheon will replace the parking ticket. Those too would do well to instill FEAR in society.

"People should not be afraid of their Governments, governments should be afraid of their people" - V from the movie "V for Vendetta"

We already fear the police. What is causing so much trouble is that too few respect them.

a 14 inch black latex dildo as a sidearm will demand respect .

a power hungry cop in black doesn't scare me, but a power hungry cop with a gun does.

mass. is definitely wasting their time.

ooooh weee oooooh ninja!!!!!

wgaf

lol malathion..you need to go to timeout for that comment

I've heard it all.I rest my case.

Haha malathion

"Soldiers who are not afraid of guns, bombs, capture, torture or death say they are afraid of homosexuals. Clearly we should not be used as soldiers; we should be used as weapons."
~ Letter to the Editor, The Advocate

Someone said Black IS Sexy..and he is totally right. I love black and it does get my blood going. So, it depends on the person if Black scares you and that is totally fine. Red scared my relative. I use to be scared of wearing pink, but I do now.
Thats the problem with (most of) the police. They want to intimidate you, scare you even if you are innocent. Walking all over your constitutional rights is fun for them, the don't give a flying F---. The USA is a police state. Its happening so subtlety it goes unnoticed until things like this happen, and then only a few notice..then a few more! It'll be too late by the time everyone realizes.
People in the USA are so scared of standing up for whats right. Bush and his cronies take and take and hardly a whisper is heard. (He even stole the election) Time for some non violent demonstration by the masses, not just the few who are caring for the USA's future. Dream up something unique....save your selves..Save what America was meant to be, not what a few (greedy, power hungry) Americans WANT it to be. America can be saved. America can then save the world.

What the heck are they thinking? It'll probably never work and cause even more problems than they are trying to fix. They should carry big guns like the .519 (I think) caliper Raptor rifle.

police are too soft that is why crime is so bad, not the police fault they have no choice.

Here comes the Police State!

riverdeer..... go back to sleep

police state everyone? honestly? we're talking about massachusetts, doesn't seem to problematic... my local police wear black... so what? they are dumb to say black dress incites fear and it is dumb to assume a police state will result because of it.

AcehardChester: agreed. respect is hard to find w/ cops. i just hope they maintain their humanity enough to treat people like people in almost any circumstance.

police state? have you guys read the PATRIOT Act? We've been in a police state for years now...

All those rights like privacy, habeus corpus, protection from unlawful search and seizure, and the ban on military use against civilians went out the window then. And introduce the likes of Blackwater and we now have what we fondly call the "Secret Police" in other countries....

Please wake up. Arm yourself with knowledge against the state and be vigilent. There are those in and outside of our government that believe we are peasants to be herded and kept.

Yeah, because when you think of the police force, you have to think "to be feared"!

aren't cops supposed to be scary anyways. they do have guns.

Ok this is not nearly as big a deal as some people are making it. It does seem like a little bit of a waste of money to replace all those uniforms but I think there's also a problem with "softening the image" of the people that enforce the law. I don't give a crap what color the police's shirts are, if their orders involve martial law they can do it in any goddamn color.

the image becomes ego.

They already have egos that are scary enough. What more do they want to spend our tax dollars on. Taxsachussets is rich enough. Extortion motivation for the ego power!
I'm scared now!

Whats really scary if you stop to think about it ...... Is the patriot act and the dept. of homeland security. If they decide to pull you in for whatever, they can hide behind that and hold you indefinitely without having to observe and of your rights as an American citizen.
It was mentioned somewhere in the replies about Blackwater Inc. being used as America's secret police force and the local and state police being forced into a position to act as the yes-men for them (Black shirts).
I would start to worry about who is monitoring what is being said and who is keeping track of it. Remember that even Hitler had his night of a thousand knives. And by the sounds of it, burning books just might be coming back into fashion.

What colour were they before?

Also ... isn't black usually the 'bad' side? Look at Gandalf.....the white!

The whole notion about instilling fear into people has always back fired. This whole wearing black movement is NOT going to work. The youth are just going to take it as a joke.

If you really want to deal with youth violence then educate. That will last longer and have a better effect.

I live in Milwaukee where Edward Flynn came in as chief of police, and already has reduced crime in the city dramatically, its not about the color of uniforms, it's about strategically hitting high crime areas and making bold statements that crime will not be tolerated by hitting the streets hard and taking down high profile criminals, if Flynn where to come to Milwaukee and change the color of the uniforms to make a bold statement to criminals they would have laughed and challenged the police even more, the only people it scares is actual law abiding citizens that really don't do anything wrong except blow a stop sign or something.

Don't stop there, give them black capes as well.

Actually batman looks pretty scary, how about every Massachusetts police man has a pointy hat too. That or a darth vader helmet. Give them a choice.

it's funny how everyone thinks that black uniforms translate to them getting ultimate power. if you haven't done anything wrong, shut your mouth, because it doesn't pertain to you

Tough guys, ah! The act of power is a condition were thinking is not an option.

Trying to Neuter real men for a conditional life. What do you think about that?

Go ahead, change your uniforms to make yourself more scary, but don't make a press release and thell the world.

In today's world of increasing police brutality cases like Sean Bell, the riots in LA, Sharpton acting the fool in the Bronx, it is shameful for a police department to push the fact that they are making themselves scarier a deterent.

It is ridiculous and the comissioner responsible for bragging about this should be fired or demoted.

The glove and needle? Really a stupid move in marketing and image making. Perhaps it's an ad for diabetic supplies?

Here's an idea, do better police work, create a better image in the community deserving of respect through professionalism and trust not intimidation.

A nedd to appear more scary comes from a position of fear and is a element of escalation.

Escalate, escalate until you have bagdad in boston. IS that what they want?