Yup, for all the sturm und drang over Keene, NH and then Concord NH getting free money from the way-in-debt Fed Govt to by their very own Bearcats, this beats them all.
Sidenote: when ARE local officials gonna start show some adulthood and say “thanks, but no thanks – we are NOT going to be the cause of our federal Government to put us all further into debt????
For all of the talk about keeping police safer, here in NH the stats show that these things are rather poorly and minimally used – pretty much, what they do best is as a “Touch the Truck” event after “gathering rust”. Sure, we hear about protecting police or civilians “down” scenarios and serving warrants – but here in largely rural NH?
Serving warrants. Yeah, exACTLY the same reason why the Dallas County Sheriff decided that they had to step up the “protection factor” – and got them some MRAP. From IBD:
…The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office gets an MRAP tactical military vehicle, used for counterinsurgency fighting in Iraq, as law enforcement becomes a collection of SWAT teams pursuing not-always-guilty Americans.
…The 19-ton, diesel-operated behemoth with bullet-proof doors and tires was built to survive improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, but will be used in the execution of warrants.
All pretense of “not militarizing of the police” has now been dispelled. Really, are things that bad outside of NH that regular law enforcement has to have a full blown rolling military war wagon? The Youngest spent a lot of time in one in Afghanistan: “Dad, we needed that sucker – they threw everything at us: 7.62, grenades, RPG, road blocks, fire, mines, machine gun, AA (a couple of times) and IEDs.
ExACTLY what you see everyday here in the US – ayup! From the Dallas Observer:
Now, it’s Dallas’ turn. Dallas County sheriff’s deputies traveled to Fort Hood earlier this month and picked up their very own International MaxxPro MRAP. This particular truck has never seen any actual combat, having only been deployed stateside for training exercises, so it doesn’t have any cool battle scars, but with the dealer’s $600,000 price tag knocked down to nothing, and with just 10,000 miles on it, the deal was too good to pass up.
After making the 160-mile drive back to Dallas from Fort Hood, deputy James Blesoe declared that the vehicle “exceeded expectations,” according to a memo to Dallas County commissioner’s.
Exceeded expectation – what was that: getting 5 mpg instead of 4 and not getting your teeth rattled out of your jawbone? Or did your compatriots decide to prank you with a couple of C4 emplacements along the way home, sniping at the turret? Harsh, perhaps, but what basis can they really say “expectations met”? Unless it is in combat, all this is either a “me too!” or just a collector’s item. “Why in holy hell does Dallas County need an armored military vehicle built to withstand a minor apocalypse?” Just for serving WARRANTS?
Back to IBD:
We are law-and-order advocates but note with increasing concern that in recent years the Fourth Amendment regarding unreasonable search and seizure and even the Third Amendment about the forced quartering of government soldiers (including government police) have increasingly been cast aside.
Some might argue Dallas’ MRAP was a wise and non-threatening purchase. After all, as the Dallas Observer wryly notes, “there’s no telling when North Texas might descend into sectarian warfare and start planting IEDs along Riverfront Boulevard.”
Ending thought: The Sheriff got it for free and can claim “and it didn’t cost taxpayers an additional dime”. Betcha the Police of Concord and Keen are having “armor envy” and the City Councils are hating the fact “and we took grieve over those stupidly written grants and those Texans got it for NOTHING??”
However, in this deal, I think all of us citizens lose – nice to see that our Police view us in such a manner that they literally have to be prepared for war to do their jobs; that has “to serve and protect” written all over it, dontcha think?
