this post was submitted on 17 May 2026
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Today I Learned

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[–] Alfredolin@sopuli.xyz 17 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

I just checked, in Helsinki, Finland (my instance's location), 25% of the city budget (~1,25B€) would cover the police expense for entire country and more (~900M€).

Here police is managed by the state but I tried to make things comparable. And I don't believe the police is extremely underfunded there. Is the US police driving tanks or wtf?

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 6 points 10 hours ago

Urban police have a fuck ton of high tech equipment, high pay, and unlimited overtime (because the cities politically can't stop them from taking it). They also have frequent legal costs because they keep violating citizens' rights.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Is the US police driving tanks or wtf?

Yep. They literally are 🤬

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 hours ago

Armored carriers, helicopters. Those helicopters range for $5-20M each.

[–] NiHaDuncan@lemmy.world -1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

That’s an M113 (variant), an APC (armoured personnel carrier) is nowhere near a tank.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

That's a distinction without importance.

What's important is that it's military hardware that they don't need and which reinforces their toxic mindset of being at war against certain neighborhoods, ethnicities, income brackets, and political ideologies.

[–] stickyprimer@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

The importance is in the mind of the person who knows more about armaments and wants to flex that on other people. This happens nonstop in gun control debates, as if you need the technical knowledge of a gunsmith to debate the regulation of lethal force.