Councilors say yes to Homeland Security tank.

Keene, NH - The LENCO BearCat Special Missions armored vehicle is coming to Keene, city councilors told a gathering of citizens wearing “Thanks but No Tanks” T-shirts at Thursday night's meeting.

Councilors provoked an outcry in December when they accepted a $285,933 Homeland Security grant to buy the armored vehicle without a public hearing.

Residents rallied, calling the purchase a waste of federal tax dollars; some said it would militarize the city's police force.

“The bottom line is this is not about public safety,” Councilor Terry Clark said Thursday. “This vehicle is not going to save one life.”

Councilor Bettina Chadbourne agreed with Clark, and voted to reconsider.

“I feel it feeds fear,” she said of the BearCat. “I just don't think we have the level of crime as L.A., New York, or Miami.”

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120301/NEWS07/120309985

Texas navy to patrol the Rio Grande.

Texas is getting its own navy.Next month, the state's Department of Public Safety will deploy the first of a fleet of six gunboats on the Rio Grande, the river that forms the border between the state and Mexico, CNN affiliate WFAA-TV reports.

The 34-foot-long boats, each powered by three, 300-horsepower outboard engines, will have bulletproof plating and six machine guns apiece, not unlike the river patrol boats the U.S. Navy used during the Vietnam War. The boats are equipped with .50 caliber machine guns.

The vessels will be able to operate in as little as 2 feet of water, according to the report, and will work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to combat drug smuggling coming across the Rio Grande.

"They're finding out when those people are coming across, and one of the things they need to be able to do is interdict them on the water," Texas state Rep. Paul Workman told CNN affiliate KVUE-TV when the first of the boats, the JD Davis, was christened in December.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/29/texas-navy-to-patrol-the-rio-grande/?hpt=hp_t2