Hell is still selling ice cubes - and I agree with Occupy NH on this - Granite Grok

Hell is still selling ice cubes – and I agree with Occupy NH on this

LENCO Bearcat.2It has been a while since I’ve written about Occupy NH.  Certainly we agreed upon one thing – that the combination  & collusion of Big Government with Big Business resulting in Crony Capitalism at best, and Fascism at worst.  Where we parted ways was on how to ameliorate the situation; they wanted even BIGGER Government to handcuff Big Business.  As a Free Market guy, I want the chances for Big Business to worm its lobbying armies into every nook and cranny of Government to go to nil.  It is ONLY because Government is so large, and has so much money to spend, that Big Business does what it does – follows the money.  Reduce the size of Government, turn much of the non-Constitutional activities back to the States, and much less cronyism can occur.  But I digress.

With the Lenco BearCat being pursued by Concord’s Chief Duval, who targeted Occupy NH as an immediate and present danger (along with the Free Staters, Sovereign Citizens formally, and probably TEA Party folks floated around in his noggin), Occupy NH wrote a very good rebuttal and made some very good points – and yes, I agree with them (emphasis mine):

…What is most alarming about this grant is the intent of the grant. While the City of Concord is not utilizing local tax dollars to purchase the BEARCAT, it does come with strings attached. In addition to receiving this counter attack truck, the police force also agrees to receiving DHS training which further militarizes the police force. The ongoing militarization of our police force is a threat to us all. There is and should be a clear difference between the mission statements and parameters of the military and the police. A military unit’s mission is “to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat,” according to the Soldier’s Creed. Local police are expected to “protect and serve,” according to their creeds. The incorporation of military equipment and military training indicates a police view that peaceful NH citizens with something to say are in fact enemies to be subdued and destroyed.

The result of this process to purchase a BEARCAT is further alienation of the police force from those they are supposed to serve and protect. As such, it carries a bone chilling effect on protest in New Hampshire. As active citizens, it is our right and our duty to speak out against our government when it is not representing our interests. To target protest with military style equipment is to target those rights inherent to us. The right to free speech is an inalienable right, not granted to us by the government or by any institution of government, but protected by it. The acquisition of an attack vehicle in response to peaceful activist groups sends a strong message that dissent will be met with force. That the first amendment of the United States Constitution is only to be upheld when in line with current power structures. We & fellow citizens cherish our rights to free speech and assembly and will non-violently defend them despite intimidation tactics.

Well said.

There is a movement on the Right (even as Occupy is seen as a creature of the LEFT, mostly) to view the literal explosion of military hardware and tactic by police departments everywhere as something to be seriously discussed.  Most  agree that in taking down entrenched drug mobs, gang member warfare, or the like may well need such equipment especially in dense urban areas (a GREAT reason to resist the Federal efforts to “densify” us all).  But a rural area needing a SWAT team and armored tank to simply remove an upset person out of their house?  C’mon, whose kidding who?

And for the Police that would look at that and immediately head for the nearest debating cliff to make a dumb stab at making a point, no, I don’t want you hurt.  I realize that even here out in the sticks, Mayberry was a TV show and not reality.  Let’s be clear – we’re not NY, LA, Houston, Chicago or some other large urban area.  The fact that the Chief has the attitude that normally complacent people are talking and protesting civilly (yes, shouting can be civil) are a danger to behold with absolutely NO evidence at hand just proves the point.  That IS the point – having the material, having the training, DOES change and WILL change the “to protect and to serve” police.  In the military, when deployed, everyone has to be seen as the enemy – is Chief Duval now explicitly confirming that attitude of “us vs them”?   Are there other SWAT leaders and teams that have similar outlooks?  I’d have to say yes just in what I see in reading all that I do.

LENCO IS rent seeking and this is Crony Capitalism at its finest – “Let’s get some level of Government that’s already broke to fork over money it doesn’t have and give it to some lower level of government that would NEVER buy this equipment with its own taxpayers money.”  And THAT is a bad thing – because we are heading towards being Greece on steroids because lower down level officials of Government (State, County, City, Town) just can’t get enough of that Free Crack Money from the Feds.  Oh sure, we hear “free money” or “our taxpayers aren’t paying for it”.

Bull crap – even when confronted with the fact of “well, if someone else’s money is paying for us, isn’t OUR money going to them?”, they continue to delude themselves – and local taxpayers.  And that kind of money ALWAYS comes with strings (e.g., Bearcat mandates DHS training, obligating later cooperation)

Think I’m kidding about the attitude changing and morphing?  Four words: Boston Bombing and Watertown.  I watched some of the videos of families being screamed at by heavily armed police backed up by armored Humvees with .30 cals in an up top turret – their only crime was being supposedly in their domiciles where they believed themselves to be ‘secure in their effects’.  ONE bomber, a teenager, was on the loose and yet it resulted in a city wide lockdown.

As the Marine Colonel (ret) testified at the Concord hearing for the Bearcat – what are we turning into?

The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen

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