Police receive a free armored vehicle from DHS claim they'll use it to transport people
Cullman, Alabama - The Cullman Police Department added a new tool to their agency in the form of a 2007 armored military vehicle that required no out of pocket costs from the department, but was valued around $400,000.
The 40,000 pound Caiman MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) surplus military vehicle was picked up from Hattisburg, Miss., and driven to Cullman by investigator Matt Dean and officer David Nassetta on Monday. Cullman received it through the federal government 10-33 program. Police Chief Kenny Culpepper said this vehicle will be an asset to the department and specifically the tactical unit.
“Members of the community may take a look at this and think, ‘Why would the police department need something like that?,’” Culpepper said. “We may receive a lot of criticism from the community saying it’s a waste and we will never use it. Well, I hope we never have to prove that we need it because that means some form of tragedy has struck, whether it be a natural disaster, school shooting or something else like it. In the office, we’ve had a heart defibrillator there for a long time and many people say it’s a waste, truth be told, I don’t want to have to use it. So, just like this vehicle, I hope for continued criticism. We don’t mind it.”
Culpepper said the vehicle will be beneficial in many areas, if certain situations were to occur in the community.
“It serves many purposes and it will be a great asset to the force,”Culpepper said. “Besides being a means of training for the tactical officers, it will be extra security in the time of a crisis, or something similar like inclement weather situations. People can also be transported in it.”
Assistant Police Chief Craig Green said the 10-33 program can be applied for by any law enforcement agency.
“The 10-33 program provides surplus military equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies and it is authorized under federal law,” Green said. “It gives us the opportunity to have equipment we could not afford otherwise without this program.”
Although it will be a vehicle for Cullman city police, it will not be used in day-to-day operations.
“We will not be using it all the time, this is not a take home vehicle for an officer or anything, this is something we will be able to use for a long period of time in situations that call for this type of assistance,” Culpepper said. “For instance, if we were responding to a gunman situation and we had an officer that was wounded, this would be a shielded vehicle that we could respond with instead of having to put a shield on the windshield of a law enforcement vehicle and force the officers to sink down in their seats, this vehicle would allow us to enter the area and be protected.”
The only cost for the department on the vehicle was the fuel to drive it back to Cullman. The vehicle uses diesel fuel and gets an estimated seven miles to the gallon, much like other military vehicles or Hummers that are used by law enforcement.
“The department applied for the military surplus vehicle, much like other police departments are receiving military vehicles to be used for tactical purposes,” Culpepper said. “The officers will be able to use the tool to train with and if they are able to take care of it for 20-30 years, much like a fire-truck, it will last a long time.”
The MRAP hosts capabilities to hold and distribute tear gas, it has a connector for a Jaws-of-Life machine if needed in coordination with car accidents. It also has an air compressor, basically providing police officers with their own version of a firetruck. The 10-foot-tall truck features its own crow’s nest area that adds about three feet, totaling the truck’s height to around 13-feet-tall. The crow’s nest opening has settings for machine gun capabilities. Inside, it features two front seats, six seating pods with feet bands and straps much like seat-belts, electronic capabilities and an area to hold a large amount of equipment. The holding power from the straps was created for the vehicle to withstand encounters with land mine threats.
http://www.cullmantimes.com/local/x862177795/Cullman-police-receive-free-armored-vehicle-for-emergencies
The Preston Police department gets a combat vehicle:
Preston, Idaho is a town of roughly 5,000 people It is blessedly devoid of violent crime, and has no need for its six-officer police department.
“There isn’t much violent crime in Preston – but how much does it take?” Chief Geddes responded.
“There wasn’t much crime in that little Connecticut town [Newton] before Sandy Hook – but it would have been nice if they would have had an MRAP on the day of the school shooting.”
He also took issue with the assumption that because Preston is small and relatively tranquil, his department doesn’t need to expand its paramilitary capacity: “Boise has a much larger population, and much larger police force, and much greater capacity than we do – but are we to believe that the people in Boise are more valuable than the people in Preston?” This assessment of relative value omits rational calculations of risk. It also assumes that enhancing police capacity conduces to public safety, which is at very best a thoroughly questionable assumption.
Although the advertised law enforcement purpose served by MRAPs and other armored vehicles is force protection, Chief Geddes suggests that the vehicle could also be used to evacuate citizens who are threatened by an active shooter. That claim is robustly implausible: There isn’t a recorded instance in which a SWAT team responding to an active shooter made anything other than “officer safety” is chief operational priority, and Preston isn’t likely to set a precedent – assuming that such a situation were ever to arise in that bucolic southeastern Idaho town.
Chief Geddes points out that his department and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office (which is headquartered in Preston) are receiving training and assistance from “a military agency” regarding the operation and maintenance of the MRAP. This blending of functions and equipment summons concerns about law enforcement militarization that the Chief quickly and impatiently dismisses.
Public concerns about the militarization of domestic law enforcement occur because the public “lags” behind their protectors in perceiving dangers and needs, according to Geddes. The general population simply doesn’t have the preternatural sense of incipient danger Chief Geddes acquired through years of patrolling the inhospitable streets of Preston and the danger-laden back roads of Franklin County as a sheriff’s deputy.
In 1972, with financial backing and technical assistance provided by the Police Foundation, the Kansas City Police conducted a year-long study to measure the deterrent effect of police patrol. That survey concluded that police patrols had no documented impact on the crime rate.
Police patrols over plentiful opportunity for pro-active intervention to obtain revenue, or enforce regulations that do nothing to protect persons and property. This means that they are worse than useless from the perspective of those who value individual liberty more than state-imposed conformity. It’s reasonable to say that Chief Geddes resides in the other camp.
In an op-ed column he wrote for the Preston Citizen newspaper, Chief Geddes admonished the public to be “thankful” for Pentagon’s generosity in providing the MRAP to his department: “I appreciate our government and our military for the security they give us and for their help to increase our strength here in our schools and home.”
The problem, of course, is that once police are given access to exotic instruments of repression, they will find a reason to use them. This is illustrated by the ease and haste with which the Taser – introduced as a substitute for firearms in situations involving deadly force – has become an implement of pain compliance used to administer summary punishment upon Mundanes who discomfit their uniformed overlords in any way.
An even better illustration of this dreadful trend is the promiscuous use of SWAT teams: When introduced in the late 1960s, SWAT units were described as special-purpose teams to be deployed only in extraordinary circumstances, such as armed robberies and hostage situations. Now, however, there are, on average, approximately 220 SWAT-style raids each day. Won’t the acquisition of military-grade hardware to police departments simply exacerbate this tendency?
“That is a valid concern,” admitted Nampa Police Lt. Tim Randall, who represents the department’s Office of Professional Standards, when I posed that question to him. He also acknowledged that the department had received a great deal of public comment “concerning the possibility of police militarization, which we can certainly understand.”
Nampa, a city of about 70,000 people, has a crime rate slightly above the state average, but well below the national average. Why would its police department (which last year acquired two military-issue Humvees from the National Guard) need an armored combat vehicle designed to protect soldiers from land mines and sniper fire?
“Well, first of all, it’s free,” observed Lt. Randall. “It’s also the case that even a small agency like the Nampa PD has a big need for armored protection.” Employing the same Department of Homeland Security boilerplate language retailed in press releases from other departments around the country, the Nampa PD insists that the need for the MRAP is underscored by “a rise in mass shootings and incidents of terrorism” nation-wide.”
The Pentagon (DHS) has a stock of about 20,000 MRAPs, most of which will eventually find their way into local police arsenals, along with Predator-style drones and other military hardware field-tested overseas. Although an MRAP has no discernible practical value as a tool for protection of life and property, it is tremendously useful as a prop in the ongoing campaign to indoctrinate police regarding the unacceptable danger to “officer safety” posed by an armed public — and the need for conspicuous displays of potential force to deter potential threats.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/10/william-norman-grigg/every-little-town-with-a-cop-tank/