Posted on 10/23/2013 1:36:15 AM PDT by stevie_d_64
This month, more Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles (MRAPs) have found their way from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the Main Streets of America. These are just the latest acquisitions in a growing practice by Pentagon that's militarizing America's municipal police forces.
Police departments in Boise and Nampa, Idaho, each acquired an MRAP, as did the force in High Springs, Florida. The offer of war-ready machinery, at practically no cost, has proven hard to resist for local police departments. Increasingly, they are looking like soldiers equipped for battle.
The growing similarity between our domestic police forces and the U.S. military is a result of the Pentagon's 1033 Program. This allows the Defense Department to donate surplus military equipment and weapons to law enforcement agencies. In addition to the frightening presence of paramilitary weapons in American towns, the program has led to rampant fraud and abuse.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Now it is becoming public knowledge that the “programs” are officially numbered, sanctioned by departments in both the government and local police jurisdictions...
Adding that there is more than enough fraud and abuse of the equipment, funds and other uses of this equipment that the govenrment is trying to offload at taxpayers expense “again”...
Same old story, just more information on other aspects of this issue...
Obviously we are only scratching the surface of what they want, or not want, us to know about...
Bear in mind the name of the program...Something you might be able to Google in the future...
We need a kinder and gentler police force. where not everybody is required to be armed. We need less swat and more beat cops.
Police, even in small towns, were morphing into jack booted thugs before I left the USA. It may be a forerunner to nationalizing all police to enforce the new Marxist USSA.
I was driving home from work yesterday and noticed a sign on the side of the road that said, “Police Training ahead”. There were 2 of those armored vehicles painted flat black and lots of guys with military style weapons and uniforms conducting some kind of training in the parking lot of what used to be a bank. I understand that the police need to train but this was in a relatively conspicuous area near a busy intersection. Why do it there at 3:00 in the afternoon during rush hour? Has anyone else ever seen a sign that reads, “Police Training ahead”. I haven’t; and I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. This is an odd thing to see especially in Vancouver (Orchards) Washington.
>> There were 2 of those armored vehicles painted flat black and lots of guys with military style weapons and uniforms
When the SHTF, remember to bring squirrels.
Defund the police.
We need police that carry revolvers.
>> I left the USA.
Really?
Are you calling our US Army reserves “jack booted thugs?”
How are they connected to the obvious militarization?
“Defund the police.”
That’s what happened in Newark NJ; 160 laid off in the murder capital of NJ so teachers could get their raises...
To be fair, the cops weren’t doing anything anyway.
Obama had proclaimed what he believed to be a need for a “civilian national security force”, to be as well funded and trained as the military forces. It seems like this plan is going forward well on schedule.
The US military cannot be used for enforcement of civil order within the United States, because of something called the Posse Comitatus act of 1878, which is still in effect. When soldiers are deployed to enforce civil order, they are National Guard units, state militia, ostensibly called up by the state governor of the particular state involved, but if the Guard units are nationalized, they must cease their efforts at maintaining law enforcement.
So an end run around both the Constitution and the intent of Amendment III of the bill of rights is in order, much like the private army that François Duvalier had instituted in Haiti.
The Tonton Macoutes were a Haitian paramilitary force created in 1959 and reporting directly to François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier until his death in 1971. ‘Papa Doc’ came to power in 1957, as a democratically elected leader on a populist platform. He had previously served as Minister of Health. After an attempted coup against him in 1958, Duvalier rewrote the Haitian constitution, making himself a ‘President for Life’. Believing the Army was planning to overthrow him (as they had previous leaders), he disbanded all law enforcement agencies in Haiti, including the army. He executed all high-ranking Generals. To keep law enforcement completely loyal to his own ruling family, he created the Tonton Macoutes, who were granted automatic amnesty through his powers for any crime they committed.
“Are you calling our US Army reserves “jack booted thugs?””
________________________________________________
I said absolutely NOTHING about US military people.
I have no idea how you came to such a conclusion.
Visability is intimidation alone...Some people will take it as a positive in which they’ll exclaim, “LOOK!!! They are here to protect us!!! USA USA USA USA!!!”
For some it will be percieved that this is the new norm, and that when you see it again, it could be for real...For what, I have yet to see a justification for a public presense (like that) for any reason...
If the people manning these departments are full of combat veterans looking to re-kindle that “jazz” feeling they got when “outside the wire”...Those types of law enforcement we do not need on the streets, but somewhere, some people in your local governments think this will protect them and their jobs if they have forces like this that are just as good as the military...
At least on paper...
But for every example of when para-military law enforcement units like these are deployed, it is during a time when they government has lost control, and there is a convention of thought that somehow justifies their pre-planning to aquire equipment and personnel liike this to quell and subdue the easy populace...
Go back and look at how Boston handled their crisis...For two little twerps that quite a few agencies already had a line on in the first place...They just didn’t put all the dots together, and having the force to subdue an entire city in this country was more acceptable than applying preventative medicine to the sore...
How about how you cannot cop a squat in our nations capitol without garnering the attention of some geek-monkey monitoring a bank of camera feeds...But somehow a deranged mother suffering (how convienient) from PPD, who led that town on a short chase on those streets needed to killed by an increasingly violent tedeny driven police force...
The more you question the outcomes, the more it whittles away at the justification of such up-armored police forces in this country...
And we all wonder why the economy, and social condition of this country is in such disarray???
All it will take now is one serious incident and this entire country will come un-glued...
I would like to think we can handle that without reacting with a force like this who’s purpose is to not prevent, but to control the population...
And to do this at 3pm in rush hour traffic is to do so for only one reason...To desensitize you and many others to the fact that when it does blow up, you will not be allowed to do anything but follow orders, and if you refuse, you can be dealt with summarily...When they very well could be going after the “real” problem...
Interesting times we live in...
ding ding ding ding ding ding...winner winner winner winner winner!!!
;-)
>> I said absolutely NOTHING about US military people.
Agreed. You didn’t.
“The US military cannot be used for enforcement of civil order within the United States, because of something called the Posse Comitatus act of 1878, which is still in effect.”
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Do you really think that will stop Obama? He has usurped the
constitution from the day he filed to run for POTUS.
Very interesting. It reminds me of a radio station I listened to when in Seattle, who’s call letters I don’t remember. They had a little on air ditty for their station that broadcast their coverage, “from Vancouver to Vancouver”. Did a search for it but came up empty. That would have been around 1969.
If you Google, or Yahell “Pentagon’s 1033 Program”
And manage to sift through and not get bogged down in the conspiracy theory rut, there is a lot to be gained in reading between the lines and begin to ask valid, non-conspiracy theory laden questions...
For it to be initially labeled as “free” surplus is such a kook hook, its not even funny...none of this stuff is ever given away from free...The grants these departments wrote to get money to convert, maintain and operate this surplus equipment is where the money is...
Our districts down here have bought more Army heavy “high water” vehicles for flooding emergencies than other places I have heard that have the same problem...The upkeep, conversion, paint-jobs and storage of these vehicles is not cheap...And all we are talking about there are trucks...Not your sexy MRAP’s for the “jazz-seekers” who wanna look cool ebfore they are really needed for controlling the public during civil disturbances...etc etc etc...
A simple question that needs to always and never let up on is this...
What are these MRAP’s to be used for??? And what justifies us keeping them active, and not under some temporary contract if we only need them for “warrant duty”...
But you have to have politicians with the political courage to question these potential aquisistions with realistic expectations and caution those who want these things without question...
A rarity these days...
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