09.17.14
The MRAP: Now another ridiculous symbol of deep social and governmental dysfunction
A Congresswoman, Claire McCaskill, put online a tabulation of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles sent to American police departments since 2011. Its numbers are linked to police departments with less than ten active duty police officers and, by state, how the total number exceeds the numbers possessed by National Guard units. (Hint: Most state Guard units have zero MRAPs.)
The .pdf has inspired a good number of incredulous and justifiably
ridiculing stories on the stunning reality that the Pentagon has also been shipping armored fighting vehicles to school district police forces and penny-ante community colleges.
Like this one, on Saddleback community college in Orange County, California:
With just nine full-time officers, the [Saddleback College police department] somehow managed to get an army mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicle for…what exactly? Scaring kids who don’t put up their parking permit?
In other news today, such stories have had some effect, motivating Los Angeles Unified to claim it would be divesting itself of a number of grenade launchers given to it by the Department of Defense.
It’s become obvious that the people who run the Pentagon’s 1033 Program, which is how these things have come to be everywhere, have no shame, common sense or any recognition of what differentiates a service for the social good from one that has morphed into something quite the opposite.
Look over the document. Be amazed at the numbers.
There are many reasons to seriously consider the United States as a pariah country on the global stage, one with no serious belief in the rights of human beings other than freedoms to buy stuff and or have large weapons stockpiled and ready to use on them if they can’t. Provision of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles for police forces in piss ant towns, community colleges and for school district police forces fulfills the latter freedom. As for the freedom to shop, you’re on your own and the vicissitudes of the economy.
Statistic of the day, easy:
The Payne County Sheriff’s Department in Oklahoma, with one active duty officer, has two MRAPs, the above, weighing 29 tons, being one.