Would you rather have police arriving in a big, yellow school bus?

Re “Put the brakes on militarizing the police” (Another View, Page 6A, April 12): Police departments often need to get officers to a location in mass (as in riots and SWAT actions). The police department could “buy” a school bus and pay to have it painted some color other than school bus yellow and they could pay to have armor plate put on to it to protect the officers while entering the crime scene, or they can apply for a free armor-plated vehicle from the U.S Department of Defense.

As your article pointed out, law enforcement nationwide has gotten $5 billion in surplus military equipment for free. That’s $5 billion you and I have saved in new taxes. Finally, if this is a real concern, one can always bring up this or any other subject at our local public meeting.

This story was originally published April 20, 2018 at 10:06 AM with the headline "Would you rather have police arriving in a big, yellow school bus?."