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Towns get MRAPs
Rain
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Robert Shellmyer was relieved to see last week at his hometown’s 175th anniversary celebration that the local police department’s new prized possession was not driving alongside the tractors and floats in the parade.
That’s because a 45,000-pound, explosion-resistant vehicle from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan might spoil the mood.
Shellmyer, a 78-year-old city councilman for the small town of Washington, Iowa, was the sole local politician to vote against the department of 12 police officers getting the free MRAP — short for mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle — from the Defense Department three months ago. Washington is one of hundreds of towns and cities to get a recycled MRAP from the Pentagon over the past year and a half.
“Here’s the thing,” Shellmyer says. “Washington, Iowa, has 8,000 people. We have an MRAP now. We have a SWAT team. We have [police] dogs, and we have a SWAT team transportation vehicle that’s not armored.”
The city councilman began to think: “Goodness, this is overkill.”
But as a new report by the ACLU demonstrates, Washington’s use of military tactics and equipment has become the norm. Most of America’s police departments now have special paramilitary units — called SWAT teams — to respond to emergency situations, conduct drug raids and even, in some cases, patrol the streets. In the past few years, more of these SWAT teams are getting armored vehicles provided by the federal government to expand their capabilities.
Law enforcement leaders say the increased military equipment and tactics are necessary to respond to violent emergency events such as school shootings. Critics counter that the militarization of police causes needless violence. The ACLU report found that 46 civilians were injured in 818 SWAT raids over two years in 11 states. Children were present in the home in 14 percent of the raids the group studied. In 60 percent of the raids, police had a search warrant for a drug offense. Only 7 percent of the SWAT deployments the ACLU studied were for hostage or active shooter scenarios.
The MRAPs, designed to protect U.S. soldiers from roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, are now providing more firepower to these raids thanks to the Defense Department’s 1033 program, which began in the late 1980s to recycle old military equipment to local police. (That includes tens of thousands of machine guns, as well as more quotidian items such as office furniture and computers.) The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, provides millions of dollars in grants to local police to buy lighter armored vehicles, like BearCats, to combat terrorism or drug running. (Keene, New Hampshire, received a DHS grant on the strength of an application that listed its annual pumpkin festival as one of several potential terrorist targets.)
Unlike when they apply for DHS grants, police departments do not have to make the case that they are facing a terror threat to receive an MRAP under the Defense Department program. The Pentagon has given away 600 MRAPs since it began unloading the vehicles last year. The demand for the hulking machines is growing.
“There’s been a real steady increase in police stations taking advantage of this,” said Mark Wright, a Defense Department spokesman. “It’s a heck of a good deal. ... ‘Here’s the MRAP free of charge. You’ve got to pay for maintenance and gas, but other than that we’ll take care of the rest.’”
Police departments can cruise for MRAPs and other free military equipment online. A government website that advertises the available equipment shows armored vehicles covered in American flags and branded “POLICE.” Police departments are asked to specify if they want an armored vehicle that is tracked, like a tank, or one that is on wheels.
The supply of extra MRAPs is likely to only increase — the government spent $50 billion to produce 27,000 of them in 2007.
“Now that the Iraq and Afghanistan war has wound down, the military has a tremendous amount of surplus,” said Pete Kraska, a criminology professor at Eastern Kentucky University who has studied SWAT teams for 25 years. But Kraska doesn’t think it’s a good thing for local police to inherit those leftovers. Though military-style tactics are necessary to respond to extreme situations — such as an active shooter — SWAT teams are predominantly being used to raid private homes in search of drugs. The decommissioned Defense Department gear is likely just to encourage more of those raids carried out by police wearing battle fatigues, another item the 1033 program doles out.
Because the Pentagon just started handing out the MRAPs in 2013, it’s unclear how they’re being used. Some SWAT teams use them just for transportation to a raid, but at least one department has used the vehicle to bust through a door. The ACLU wasn’t able to determine how often the vehicles were used by SWAT teams, according to the report’s author Kara Dansky.
Many of the armored vehicles end up in hamlets like Washington, which might seem surprising, except that SWAT teams have grown exponentially in small towns over the past 20 years. Kraska found that 80 percent of small towns had SWAT teams by 2005, up from just 20 percent in 1980. More than 90 percent of city departments have the special units.
Police say the vehicles are necessary to protect officers in a violent world.
William Brister, a captain in the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana, said his department decided it needed an armored vehicle after a shootout in 2003 left two officers dead and four more wounded. The Rapides SWAT team was delivering a search warrant to a gunman’s house after he was suspected of shooting at a police car the week earlier. Hundreds of shots were fired over two hours, and one resident told the local paper at the time that it sounded like “a war zone.”
The MRAP could also come in handy for rescue missions after flooding or a hurricane, he said.
The armored vehicle ended up costing the Rapides department $15,000 through various state and transportation fees, which Brister calls “a good chunk of change,” but he believes it’s worth it. That’s not counting gas for the 75-gallon tank, though, or training, which the Pentagon doesn’t provide. “A guy from MRAP University” came and trained eight of the officers in how to operate the heavy vehicle, Brister said. For now, the hulking MRAP is just sitting in the yard near a police building.
In Washington, meanwhile, Shellmyer gets ribbed by the locals for the vehicle and the local media attention it’s garnered. “I go down to a little filling station, and there’s always two or three boys sipping coffee and they say, ‘Well Shellmyer do you feel safer now that we have a tank?’”
The city councilman just shrugs it off. “We’re just trying to put the blanket over the top of it and hopefully people will forget we have it.”http://news.yahoo.com/as-wars-wind-down--small-town-cops-inherit-armored-vehicles-233505138.html
Comments
They don't.
OSU, you know, the COLLEGE, got one of these last fall....
http://thelantern.com/2013/09/ohio-state-university-police-bring-in-military-vehicle/
Please, someone, anyone ... explain to me, why a University's police dept. in the good ol' USA needs one of these war machines....
Maybe if OSU had a branch campus in Baghdad, ok I see the need....
But in midwest USA, Columbus (Cowtown) OH, really seems like a waste of $$$, show of force, and big potential for "excessive force/abuse of power"
I certainly understand the swat team doesn't want to roll up to a bad situation without some protection....
But wouldn't an armored box van or something be sufficient, and a little more practical than one of these beasts.....
A van wouldn't have the same "intimidation" factor as one of these though, that's for sure.
And I agree, when was the last time you heard of a cop having to avoid explosives and heavy gunfire en route ...... never.
Future Headline:
---- US DoD repurposing more equipment to Local Police Depts ----
200 Apache attack helicopters and 100 harrier jets will be available to Police Depts under this new DoD program....
Aj
I know of at least 3 different situations in N Va. (before I moved) where the mere presence of a military style vehicle brought an end to potentially explosive situations and no one was injured. Yes, it is a daxm shame they are (IMHO) needed, but don't blame that on the cops. Blame the lawyers and xxxxxxx politicians.
Now, if we had Rain I wouldn't worry about a thing. But he is only one and can't be everywhere...if only he could fly.
Aj
JD, you probably won't like this report since it's from the left-leaning, lying, liberal-biased ACLU ;-)
But they just released a 98 page report on this exact topic titled War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing
(EDIT: forgot URL) https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/jus14-warcomeshome-report-web-rel1.pdf
Long read, but worth your time IMO....at least give it a quick "once-over".
“Using these federal funds, state and local law enforcement agencies have amassed military arsenals purportedly to wage the failed War on Drugs…
But these arsenals are by no means free of cost for communities.
Instead, the use of hyper aggressive tools and tactics results in tragedy for civilians and police officers, escalates the risk of needless violence, destroys property, and undermines individual liberties.”
To me, your argument sounds like a war between you, non-criminal element, and the cops turned into a force against all citizen elements because of our government. And as long as things keep going as they are, it causes me concern too. A civil war?
I am addressing the criminal element that already has bombs and armor piercing ammo for their AK47s.
Yes, perhaps...
But maybe they are gearing up for a war with Mexico/the cartels instead.
I'd say that is more likely to happen first.
What criminal element is that?
Yes street gangs will have guns, but armor piercing bullets, body armor, etc....???
I suppose the cartels south of the border probably have some higher powered weapons and equipment though.
The most recent event that fits your description IMO was the high-profile "North Hollywood shootout" in 1997 where the two robbers were much better armed than the police.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout
And your right, they do have bombs and serious firepower if they desire it, but it would almost seem to be in a minority rather then common place. Criminals generally are about there agenda, money, control, or drugs. So while events do happen where major firepower is needed as in the example given by John I dont see this happening enough to warrent needing tactical vehicles.
Now, The point where i see this as a legitimate need, would be for the Extremest, The Outlaw Milita, or the Waco types. Like you pointed out above, where certain groups may have felt slighted by there opposing force and decide to arm up. At that level, Sheriff Dummy Do Good needs to step aside and allow military intervention. In these cases, Local authorities do nuthing more then escalate the situation to the point of where it ends up on TV like we all have seen. However, (making a wild assumption) I would suppose a militant group with a half brained leader probably would understand his inability to fight back if presented aganst a force as the US Military, he might back down, I know I would. But if it was the local police rattling my cage... they better prepare for a fight on the level of there 'Equipment" But again, these are just my opinions. And im nutz. about 3 feet short of a complete lunatic.
A.j.
If you do an internet search you will see it is more common then you think. I have personally bought and shot a full case of armor piercing in an SKS just to see if it could be damaged...all it did was get really really hot. There is a show on TV "Swat..insert city" and the number of times that type of vehicle defused a bad situation was amazing. Not to mention the number of times it opened armored doors and windows. They are out there, we just don't hear about it. One thing I have not heard a lot about lately are the militias and "posse" groups.
Reason #1 is one of my concerns, I mean how many of us haven't bought a tool on sale at Home Depot and then rolled around the house searching for something to use it on because, well, we have it?
can't go wrong raising awareness