Saturday, September 13, 2014
How many "active shooter" incidents does your town have?
Chances are you have not had one in living memory. But that won't stop your local PD from reaching for some of that good surplus weaponry the Pentagon is handing out so freely. If you are lucky, your town government will put a stop to it, as this one did in California.
The police department of this modest college town is among the latest California beneficiaries of surplus military equipment: a $700,000 armored car that is the “perfect vehicle,” the police chief told the City Council, “to perform rescues of victims and potential victims during active shooter incidents.”Before the REpublicans started giving the tax dollars back to the corporations and rich people, the feds used to give money to cities and towns to do what they needed most. Now most cities and towns are going begging since folks like the Koch Bros. need the money more than they do. In its place the military is doling out military gear to keep the peasants in their place. Keep your eyes on the ground, churl!
It is well maintained, low-mileage and free, the chief, Landy Black, said in explaining why the department had augmented its already sizable cache of surplus matériel, including rifles, body armor and riot helmets, with an MRAP: a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle.
But the City Council directed Chief Landy last month to get rid of it in the face of an uproar that had swept through this community, with many invoking the use of similar equipment by the police against protesters in Ferguson, Mo., after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager.
The vehicle, a behemoth in brown camouflage paint, is now parked out of sight in front of a steamroller in a gully next to a city garage; on a recent day, a lone pigeon cooed overhead.
“This thing has a turret — it’s the kind of thing that is used in Afghanistan and Iraq,” said Dan Wolk, the mayor. “Our community is the kind of community that is not going to take well to having this kind of vehicle. We are not a crime-ridden city.”
The mayor added: “When it comes to help from Washington we, like most communities, have a long wish list. But a tank, or MRAP, or whatever you choose to call it, is not on that list.”
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