War Gear Flows to Police Departments
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Source: NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police-departments.html?google_editors_picks=true&_r=0
NEENAH, Wis. — Inside the municipal garage of this small lakefront city, parked next to the hefty orange snowplow, sits an even larger truck, this one painted in desert khaki. Weighing 30 tons and built to withstand land mines, the armored combat vehicle is one of hundreds showing up across the country, in police departments big and small.
The 9-foot-tall armored truck was intended for an overseas battlefield. But as President Obama ushers in the end of what he called America’s “long season of war,” the former tools of combat — M-16 rifles, grenade launchers, silencers and more — are ending up in local police departments, often with little public notice.
During the Obama administration, according to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police-departments.html?google_editors_picks=true&_r=0
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I would have thought someone I crossed paths with would have mentioned it. It isn't an uncommon sight to see military vehicles near us as Oshkosh Truck Corp. is just a few miles down the road. Oshkosh Truck is a large military contractor that used to manufacture Hum-Vs for the military, but in recent years started building the type of truck Neenah received. They are big and there is no mistaking their military stature. We have just over 25k in population and we are the definition of a sleepy little town. We have one high school and a nice farmers market. We like our downtown and our parades that go through it. I'm sure this will end up being a proud fixture in our parades to help people further acclimate to our new military inspired police force. Some on the city council put up some resistance and asked the question "Why?" Our police chief, whom I believe is not an out of control war monger explained his reservation, and why he felt them ultimately insignificant.
Neenah’s police chief, Kevin E. Wilkinson, said he understood the concern. At first, he thought the anti-mine truck was too big. But the department’s old armored car could not withstand high-powered gunfire, he said.
“I don’t like it. I wish it were the way it was when I was a kid,” he said. But he said the possibility of violence, however remote, required taking precautions. “We’re not going to go out there as Officer Friendly with no body armor and just a handgun and say ‘Good enough.’ ”
That he runs a decent department, but cannot, no matter how small the threat, go unprepared it shows first hand to me the creeping nature of police force militarism.
Perhaps we should get a tank or a battleship to patrol the Fox River and Lake Winnebago. You just can't go into these things unarmed no matter how slim the risk.
I should ask, why not go out there like "Officer Friendly?" Why is it always an arms race? Does it ever end?
B-52 bombers to drop fiery death on criminal pot fields? How about Apache helicopters for drug stings? We need to own the sky lest the criminals will have won. We're right up the road from the largest Air-show that I know on if the EAA. I'm sure we could fly A-10 Warthogs out of there for laying waste to drug dealers or laying down cover fire for our officers unfriendly. I mean really, We can't exist without the ability to fight off the Red Dawn invasion. What are you nuts to think we could?
We have a very rich capitalist who spends a lot of money donating gauche statues to his community. It sort of goes with the theme here I guess.
We have the giant eagle as we enter Neenah from highway 41 on Winneconne Ave. He is perched, menacingly, talons spread, at the top of the stone wall at the center of the round-about triangulated between the McDonalds, Hardees, CVS Pharmacy, and a Citgo station.
Then the (Chase) little lady liberty statue at the corner of Main and Commercial. Parked directly in front of the Chase Bank building.
I guess the Thomas Jefferson statue is less militant, and infinitely cooler and more community friendly than either of the others. Every winter he sits near the library with a wearing a random-citizen donated stocking cap and scarf to protect him from the elements.
I don't know. I like my little town. I just don't like the war machines and the arms race.
They're at the front lines while the Army is in the rear. For now. It's pretty clear whom they think the enemies are.
But that's the basic stuff -- it's all covered in Police State 101.
- Which is ironically like Room 101 -- a place that we learned came from the story about another Police State.
The place where the worst thing in the world happens. Coincidence?
K&R
[center]''If you don’t have a master, learn from the cat.'' ~Sufi Proverb[/center]
