Twenty five or so years ago my Dad and I were pulled over in Germany for Speeding. Theere was one officer writting the ticket and another watching closely with a Machine gun. We are Behind the times.
I also remember a few years back when the LAPD got their asses handed to them by a couple of guys with automatic weapons and armor.

But, like me, you are a "gun guy". Most citizens look at something like that and see a very intimidating weapon. They are meant to view it as such. Us? Well, we know better.

Yes; absolutely more "show" than "go". But, so are most such weapons. There are better choices for non-military applications. Like lever guns...

Funny, most folks don't see a good old fashioned lever gun in the same light as they see the "black" guns. Lever guns evoke a sense of romance, the Old West, and good guy sheriffs with a Southern drawl. I bet your average gang banger would laugh at the sight of a .30-30 carbine in the hands of a peace officer. Probably think he's some kind of a back water hick. Not nearly as intimidating as an "assault weapon" carried by a guy with a black mask. If they only knew...

In the same veign, I think most citizens would feel more comfortable around officers armed with "old fashioned" lever guns. They just look "friendlier" and less intimidating. But, alas, the police would have to give up their beloved paramilitary image. I think they want to be, or feel they need to be, intimidating in a psuedo-militaristic kind of way. I think many of them relish that image. Which is really too bad; it's one of a number of issues that are pushing the police and the citizenry further and further apart. It doesn't have to be that way.

I don't have a problem with cops having big guns. Although a surplus M1 Garande could do incredible damage and at long distances, modern AR-15-style rifles are soooo much lighter and easier to carry, you can collapse the stocks to make them easier to store and they have all kinds of great options for lights, lasers, additional grips, bipods, you name it. I'd much rather have the semi-auto M4 I currently have, even if I were a cop than a full auto MP-5. (But man, are MP-5's fun at the range if you ain't paying for the ammo.)

Those bank robbers in the N. Hollywood shootout were wearing body armor, which is one reason they lasted so long against barages of handgun bullets. No machine gun was gonna do much good there either unless it used something in the .223 range or higher, preferably .308. IIRC, the cops actually had to go borrow a few AR's from a local gun store to take those guys down. Being that outgunned is criminal in itself.

Not a G36. It is missing the top Picatinny rail/optical sight assembly. Looks like a HK UMP.

here it is:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1211403086.jpg

double post

Actually, it's a SMG.

About a $5,000-8,000 USD SMG.

Just what all motorcycle cops need.... :-/

PS: The hollywood bank robbers had Class IV hard ceramic vests. That stops .308 AP, so .223 is of no added value at all. And obviously, a 9mm SMG doesn't add any more penetration at all, it just sends a ton of bullets down range. Just what we need in an urban environment full of US citizens. If you want to stop someone with body armor, just shoot them in the face or the groin.

I'll stick to my lever guns. I can quite easily embarass most folks toting their black guns at the old gravel pits. My hit to shot ratio is effectively about 1:1, where even the best I have seen with some "assault rifle" looking thing may get 1:2 when they try to shoot fast enough to keep up with me. Lots of loud misses still don't count. And a standard .30-30 round (now 114 years young) will defeat most any body armor. Just don't tell Sarah Brady that...

Yes, those cops were outgunned and had to raid the local sporting goods stores for rifles and ammo. They need to ditch the standard issue shotgun and get something more effective. Any rifle would serve them better. There is a public image issue surrounding that, however, and a "normal" looking lever gun would speak to that. And be far more effective than most folks could imagine.

So why in the world does my little city need motorcycle cops carrying smg's? Any cops here? Is this necessary and I'm just naive?

It doesn't. Their chief is probably a 'tactical' guy (like a mall ninja with a real badge), and they had extra money in their budget. Rather than let it go unspent and be returned to the gov't, they decided that your motorcycle cops should get one of the most expensive personal weapons money can buy.

Some of you are also under the guise that the weapons the cops carry are all full auto- not necessarily true. The cops in my community have .40 MP5s with 2 round burst, not full auto (the MP5 is an excellent weapon in a mall or apartment building- good hallway gun) and they also carry the AR15 with a .223 round- much faster and more accurate at distance if you need to reach out and touch someone across a parking lot or punch through a steel door frame. Nothing wrong with the weapon on the motorcycle cops bike in the photo, but it should be under a zipper sheath or bag and out of sight.

'MP-5's are standard fare in German airports'
I was in and out of MUN this month, if there were any armed LEO's around I failed to spot them, and I was probably as wide eyed and open mouthed as anyone, it being my first time abroad.
Jim

I don't have any problem with officers having heavy-duty weapons, and hard to carry anything much longer than this on a motorcycle, not even an M4. Makes sense that a motorcycle officer should have something with more oomph than his handgun. But I'd rather the weapon be better concealed, as I like my police officers a little less paramilitary . . .

I think you are joking right? Little city?

I spend a couple hours a day on the road here and see the occasional motorcycle cop and I assure all of you I have never seen anything like the OP picture.

Maybe the officer was on their way to the range? Or on the way to some special duty assignment where he needed that gun? Who knows?

I doubt it is common... for all the reasons mentioned here, just not a practical weapon for a bike cop IMHO.

I've seen motor officers with shotguns on their rigs - locking rack just like the one pictured. Intimidating? Yes. If I were him though, I'd certainly want the firepower in this town...

I don't understand your post. I live in a small IE city in the foothills of the San Gabriels. We have very little crime - certainly none that would be responded to with a sub machine gun. Aside from the question of whether or not you can be very effective against the criminal, how about all the bystanders? All those bullets have to go somewhere.

I'm 44 and I cannot remember a murder here as an adult. I'm sure there must have been a few - but a machine gun?

Anytime the Homeland Security threat level is raised they always send cops down into the Metro stations with machine guns. It's the most ridiculous, feel-good, do-nothing measure I can imagine. What the hell good is a machine gun gonna do anyone on the subway platform, where the biggest risk is a suicide bomber or someone placing nerve gas in a car like happened in Japan about 15 yrs. ago? I can see why the canines might help, if they're actually there for sniffing out bomb materials. But machine guns? C'mon. Is that supposed to make someone feel safer?

One time I was on the Metro heading west in Virginia above ground, where the track parallels I-66. We were moving at about the pace of the car traffic next to us and we got next to a motorcade (pretty common in the DC area). No idea who the VIP was, but I was watching the whole thing very closely and in one of the Suburbans the rear windows were down and I could see the guy staring right back at me with an M4 just below the window. Now that kind of security detail might call for such a gun. But walking around the subway? What a joke.