Ohio Police Load Up on Free Military Weapons

Newsmax ^ | Sandy Fitzgerald

[yank in the UK]

Ohio’s police departments are stockpiling military equipment and weapons, including mini-tanks, through a Defense Department program that gives communities free access to surplus gear.

 

Last year, Ohio police got $12 million in weapons and gear through the Pentagon program, which gave out $500 million worth of free military goods to law enforcement agencies around the country, according to the Dayton Daily News.

[yank in the UK]

They are just kidding

[GeorgeWashingtonsGhost]

Sounds like our government is creeping into our cities under the guise of free stuff to communities. It’s so much easier for SWAT teams to kill dogs with bazookas now.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

The police need to be reminded of the following:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed..."

Then add to that the history lesson of the French Revolution.

The rank and file of cops should be telling the leadership that they are there for the people and not the political elite. Otherwise they will get swept up in the maelstorm themselves when all hell breaks loose.

[nathanbedford]

This administration has a peculiar attitude about the dissemination of weapons. Fast and Furious demonstrates that it is cavalier at best and Machiavellian at worst in its policy of providing weapons to murderers and drug dealers without any supervision whatsoever.

It's issuance of weapons to municipalities under this program reveals a mindset that says that weapons themselves are not to be controlled but their dissemination is to be encouraged at least to municipalities-and, of course, Mexican drug lords.

Yet it is the availability of weapons to honest and law-abiding citizens that the administration objects to. As part of its objection it points out the danger inherent in possessing and bearing arms. For drug dealers to possess these weapons is evidently without risk. For the state to possess the weapons, or least for municipalities to possess the weapons, is equally without risk. Therefore I must conclude that it is not the weapons which present the risk but the honest, law-abiding citizens who represent risk.

Does this betray a collectivist mentality? A statist mentality? A schizophrenic mental state?

[Loyal Sedition]

Where is our share?

WE paid for them once already, where do I, as a citizen, sign up for my “Mini-tank”?

And Bazooka, M-16, Comm gear, Hummer, etc.?

[Carbonsteel]

Posse Commitatus doesn’t mean sh!t to this administration.

I

[Ken H]

Posse Commitatus doesn’t mean sh!t to this administration.

Do you think this is the first administration to do something like this?

BTW, aren't you a supporter of federal drug prohibition?

[prolusion]

Paging Officer Harles.

[Cap'n Crunch]

From the article:

In addition to tanks, M-16 rifles, bulletproof vests, helmets, chemical and biological gas masks, military vehicles, and computers, one Ohio police department got a free helicopter and another received a grenade launcher that fires tear gas canisters.

Tanks? No, I haven’t seen any tanks but I have seen some very old armored vehicles. Bulletproof vests? Most departments issue those. Helmets? Gas masks? Helicopters?

This has been going on for years, under the “Northstar” program. Our dept. was given about a dozen M-16’s. The barrels were so worn out they might as well have been shotguns. All of this stuff is surplus, it’s worn out.

The Dept. of Homeland Security has been giving police dept.’s better ‘stuff’ than what the Northstar program has avialable, that’s where you folks should be watching.

Also keep an eye on the IACP, International Assoc. of Chief’s of Police; very liberal organization. Anti 2nd. Obama sat on a board of one of their affiliates.

[Carbonsteel]

Thanks for the info.

[SampleMan]

Where is our share? WE paid for them once already, where do I, as a citizen, sign up for my “Mini-tank”? And Bazooka, M-16, Comm gear, Hummer, etc.?

Interestingly, they are being stock piled in handy locations for us right now, aren't they?

[Cap'n Crunch]

After years of trying to convince people that I’m on ‘their side’ I’ve come to the conclusion that I, and other police officers, will be targeted by both sides.

I’ve come to accept that as a given. And frankly, I don’t care anymore. When and if ‘the time comes’ police officers, like everybody else, are going to split into two camps. What percentage of cops will go to the dark side? I don’t know and again no longer care. I know what I intend to do and am already prepared.

I have discovered this, most of those that I feel would go to the dark side are in no way prepared for what might come their way. I’ve already measured them up and had discussions with some of them. Not one of them, that I know, are ‘gun guys.’ The only weapons they have are dept. issued sidearms, and most are not fond of those.

Most of them, when the real shooting starts, I believe will not be too crazy about the casualties that will be suffered by going door to door looking for peoples weapons. When the REAL shooting starts they will most likely stay at home waiting for someone else to do something.

My like-minded associates in blue have also developed a plan. Those on both sides that intend us ill will, bring your band-aids.

Take it for what it’s worth.

[FreedomPoster]

I hope it never comes to that, and if it does, I hope you’re right.

I would add that if your local department is looking at acquiring an armored vehicle, then you should look long and hard at the question of whether or not they have way too much budget. Those things aren’t cheap/easy to maintain.

[kearnyirish2]

“Interestingly, they are being stock piled in handy locations for us right now, aren’t they?”

When the rabble rose to defend the communist government against the generals’ revolt in Spain in 1936, they immediately stormed the places these weapons were kept (barracks, police stations, etc.). They quickly killed any who opposed them, and fought the army for 3 years. They eventually lost (and as a Catholic I’m glad they did), but nearly eighty years ago they knew how to deal with the militarization of their law enforcement.

[Cap'n Crunch]

They GIVE them to us. The ones I’ve seen are rarely used.

[camle]

I WANNA MINI-TANK!!!!

[FreedomPoster]

I understand that, which is why I point out the maintenance costs. “Free”, isn’t.

[wally_bert]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysbTbIVYM4M

[camle]

yes, that’ll do...

[Rannug]

Didn’t he get his job back?