As U.S. military operations wind down overseas, some of that surplus hardware has been used to equip cash-strapped local police departments.
Police and sheriff’s departments have been given at least 165 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles since this summer, according to a recent Washington Post analysis.
The vehicles cost about $500,000 at the height of the Iraq war, but they’ve been donated or sold for about $2,000 or $3,000 to local law enforcement agencies as part of a national military surplus program.
“The military was pretty much handing them out to the different cities and I put in the application for it, and we got pushed through due to the violence in the city we have here,” said Officer Keith Holmes, of the Fort Pierce, Florida, police department.
The relatively small coastal city ranked 56th last year in gun violence, with 150 shootings and about 42,000 residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
“They brought this back from Afghanistan and now it’s in Fort Pierce for officer rescues, search warrants, things like that that an officer would need protection,” Holmes said.
Other cities are using the hulking armored vehicles for similar purposes – largely to deliver shock and awe during routine business or during standoffs.
“It’s armored. It’s heavy. It’s intimidating. And it’s free,” said Sheriff Craig Apple, of Albany County, New York.
The vehicles are somewhat impractical for domestic police use, however, because they’re too big to travel on some bridges and roads and get just 5 miles per gallon.
Civil liberties watchdogs have also expressed concern about the increasing militarization of domestic law enforcement agencies.
“One of our concerns with this is it has a tendency to escalate violence,” said Kara Dansky, senior counsel for the ACLU Center for Justice.
The “wars” on drugs and terrorism have blurred the lines between police officers and soldiers, said an ACLU official in Ohio.
“Traditionally, the roles of police and the roles of military have been very different — and for good reason,” said Shakyra Diaz, policy director of the state’s ACLU chapter. “We cannot have our police looking at members of the community as military combatants.”
An Associated Press investigation found that most of the $4.2 billion in military surplus equipment distributed to law enforcement agencies since 1990 had gone to police and sheriff’s departments in rural areas with few officers and little crime.
“I agree to a certain extent it’s overkill, but for the cost, for $2,000, yes, it’s what we need,” said Holmes, of Fort Pierce police.
Watch this video report posted online by The Farmington Daily Times:
and out of all the political big mouth citizens, none have come together to speak on this tyranny….as usual -_-.
I wonder what shock and awe will be delivered with thousands of irate AMERICAN citizens. Carrying weapons of course.
This nation is the greatest COMMUNIST country in the history of the world. We had a “cold war” with Russia and for decades accused them of seeking world domination using unending violence before and after forcing communism into a conquered country. That’s us today. To enforce COMMUNISM in this country to its full effect , there has to be MASS MURDER OF THE CIVILIAN POPULATION. And mass murder is implemented to bring in COMMUNISM and continues for a time as the country is crushed. Or MASS MURDER is done to the population as COMMUNISM enters its final death throes in a country that can no longer support that CRIMINALITY posing as ‘government’. The STANDING ARMY OVER A CIVILIAN POPULATION with the local GARRISON known as the police, is trained to engaged in a MIXED WAR against the population. These WAR MEASURES are known as “government regulations and statutes” which have little to do with actual regulation of activities but instead are MASSIVE TRANSFERS OF WEALTH. This strips the population of its rights and property. Now as we see in the WAR MEASURE styled EPA the nation is being stripped of access to its NATURAL RESOURCES and INDUSTRY. WE ARE NOW DE-INDUSTRIALIZED TO PRE-CIVIL WAR LEVELS. WE PRACTICE ALL TEN PLANKS OF COMMUNISM AND THE POLITICAL PARTIES ARE THE RIGHT WING AND THE LEFT WING OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY. This pile of filth we have built in this nation is our own self inflicted poison and its FATAL. This is the beast power and you can’t reason with a beast. So we get write ups telling us how to handle, get this “confrontations with the police” and not get the beast riled up or incite their aggressiveness. THAT IS NOT LAW IT IS ANARCHY IMPLEMENTED OVER A CIVILIAN POPULATION AND PROPAGANDIZED AS “serve and protect”. This is the individual responsibility of people wearing those GANG COLORS and its not our responsibility that we have to tame the beast when stopped. That evil is being done to the nation from the AMORAL elements that make up our “men with hollow chests”. Amoral means a absence of knowledge of MORALS. That’s why when you bring up the RULE OF LAW you are targeted with hatred. It is in direct with the COMMUNIST INDOCTRINATION that goes for “law enforcement academy” training. The percentage of criminals is low and obviously growing but to have over the time frame of each decade a full 1/3 of the adult population being arrested is not the lie of “putting their life on the line every day”. That is a flat out lie because we all live here. The crimes against cops is almost NON-EXISTENCE and is suffered by the civilian population. THE MILITARY KNOWN AS LAW ENFORCEMENT IS BEING TRAINED TO COMMIT MASS MURDER AND GET AN EMOTIONAL HIGH FROM A NEVER SATISFIED APPETITE FOR VIOLENCE. THE WRONG IS OBVIOUS ON ITS FACE WITH THE “US VERSUS THEM” AND “I’LL DO WHAT EVER IT TAKES TO MAKE IT HOME DAY TO DAY” MENTALITY. Neither they or us can survive this escalation and its known consequences. This is national suicide.
Calling it “communism” just confuses the issue. You HELP the bastards by confusing people. Get a brain, just because you think “communism” is the ultimate evil that doesn’t mean that a government is communist just because it’s evil.
It’s actually Facism, the combination of government and business. Try to understand stuff beyond your childhood propaganda and stop helping them by adding to the confusion.
levi, im sorry you are no wiser than you think you are…you have a looooong way to go buddy, john’s just being honest -_-.