Meet Your Local Police's New Vehicles

[unhappycamper]

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/police-getting-leftover-armoured-iraq-trucks-112513



Drives start up Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, South Carolina, before they are to be delivered to Iraq. Police in the US are now taking leftover MRAP vehicles in droves.

Meet Your Local Police's New Vehicles
By Charles P. Pierce at 10:48AM
Nov 25, 2013

~snip~

Okay, as it happens, I will be driving through Albany County in the not too distant future. For my own safety, can somebody tell me please what in the hell has been going on in Albany County that the county sheriff needs an 18-ton armored vehicle with gun turrets and bulletproof glass? Is Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne headed that way again? Are the Martians? I will grant you that this creature will make a highly effective speed trap. But, Jeebus Christmas, does somebody really need a tank to make an effective DUI bust? And, of course, it gets worse.

Ohio State University campus police got one, saying they would use it in large-scale emergencies and to provide a police presence on football game days. Others went to police in High Springs, Fla., and the sheriff's office in Dallas County, Texas.

Were I the people setting up the BCS National Championship Game this year, I might now have second thoughts about passing over Ohio State in favor of Florida State. The Buckeyes can bring their heavy armor into play.

As the story in Stars and Stripes indicates, local police have been buying up military surplus heavy weaponry for years now. (I, for one, feel much safer in West Springfield knowing that the cops have not one, but two grenade-launchers. Keeps the Basketball Hall Of Fame safe.) It is all of a piece with the dangerously hair-trigger, highly militarized state of local law enforcement, almost all of which is a result of our idiotic "war" on drugs. (Check out how many local sheriffs say they need a tank to serve drug warrants.) This is the logical end of stop-and-frisk, pepper spray, "pain-compliance techniques," the promiscuous use of the Taser, and the occasional justified police shooting of a suspect who acted "in a furtive manner." More and more firepower. A more overwhelming response capability. If this were Afghanistan, we'd call this an "escalation."




unhappycamper comment: Since we had to fly (yup) all these MRAPS to Iraq and Afghanistan the delivered cost per vehicle is around $1,000,000. We are now cutting MRAPS into small pieces in Afghanistan.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Can they even drive on streets barred to 18 wheelers???

Lots of towns forbid big rigs and other heavy vehicles from driving on neighborhood streets.
Why would these be any different?
God I hope the street ban laws are written to include vehicle weight, and someone sues the police for driving those things.

[unhappycamper]

2. Nope.

But then again, they're cops.

[BlueCaliDem]

3. I am disheartened by how militarized our police already are

and it doesn't look as if it's going to get any less militarized any time soon. We already know that our police are not being paid taxpayer money to "protect and serve" us, although they're vigilant in protecting and serving themselves with made-up tickets people have to fight in court in order to get overturned.

There should be massive public outrage about this, but not even the incorporated Big Media is touching this.