Law enforcement across the country is being militarized at an alarming rate, with the Obama admin bringing in machines of war to American cities through a Defense Department program that donates excess vehicles originally made for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
For example, the city of Washington, Iowa, with a population of only 7,000, will receive their own MRAP (Mine Resistance Ambush Protected), as reported by The Daily Iowan.
Their excuse is, of course, that it’s needed for school shootings and terrorists.
Got bullets? The 2nd American Revolution is coming soon…
Sometimes the news is just so drearily awful that you have to sit back and almost appreciate the pure comedy induced by it.
Take this item from Washington, Iowa, where the local police have recently acquired an MRAP vehicle (short for Mine Resistance Ambush Protected) through a Defense Department program that donates excess vehicles originally produced for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to local police departments across the United States, including other Iowa towns such as Mason City and Storm Lake.
The MRAP weighs an impressive 49,000 pounds, stands 10-feet tall, and possesses a whopping six-wheel drive. Originally designed to resist landmines and IEDs, it sure seems like the MRAP will come in handy for the notorious war zone otherwise known as Washington County, Iowa.
If you’re having a bad day, I highly recommend watching a video produced by the Des Moines Register in which Washington police officials try to justify the possession of a vehicle it clearly has no use for. The excuses range from school shootings (which are an actual concern but an MRAP seems like overkill) to a terrorist attack happening in central Iowa (because if there’s any place that seems ripe for a high-profile terrorist attack it’s Washington, Iowa, population 7,000).
I mean if the police were realistic, they could come up with actual reasons to use their MRAP/machine of doom. Drunken high-school house parties could be broken up by ramming the MRAP into the side of the building. Clearly, people who have been trying to curtail underage drinking have not seriously considered the serious deterrents to slamming down a few Hamms in your parents’ house caused by a soulless war machine demolishing your kitchen.
In all seriousness however (and it is hard to be serious about a situation so absurd) this little anecdote does highlight several disturbing trends in the American cultural landscape. Most blatantly, the collective paranoia that’s gripped post-9/11 America so tightly that small-town Iowa police officers are convinced that, any minute, the whole state could become engulfed in some Red Dawn-style conflict that would require the use of a device such as the MRAP.
But, a little more subtly, this incident reflects the out-of-control militarization of the police that’s been occurring across small towns and big cities from Los Angeles to Waterville, Maine.
As Radley Balko, the author of the book The Rise of the Warrior Cop, an expose of the police militarization of the last decade, found, in 2006 alone the Pentagon, “distributed vehicles worth $15.4 million, aircraft worth $8.9 million, boats worth $6.7 million, weapons worth $1 million and “other” items worth $110.6 million to local police agencies.”
the govt is buying up 4 bill hollow point bullets for domestic use
The Second American Revolution almost began in Bunkerville, Nevada on Saturday. If the assembled Feds had not backed down the revolution would be in full swing now.
Anyone inside an MRAP has to dismount at some point. Their bodies are not mine resistant and ambush protected.
hopefully two things against martial law happening are: 1. the NDAA was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and 2. during the Boston Marathon when we had at least two (2) and perhaps three (3) real terrorists loose on the streets, the DHS did show up with their MRAP’s, but did seem to keep more in line with keeping the citizens in check than in catching the terrorists. Hmmm.
Town of 7000 means 14000 guns by TX standards. The law better get some more fire power if they try to mess with us! NV was a drop in the bucket.
You’ve heard there is no free Lunch, so what kind of Agreement with the Feds. does a local law enforcement agency need to agree upon to get one of these Rolling Metal Coffins. Bet it has to do with using it to “Police the Local Citizenry if Necessary”. Trojan Horse comes to mind.
These machines will be turned on the citizens – beware!
I have been squawking about this for some time. It’s not just these vehicles and weapons, it’s also training and tactics they are receiving, and an attitude of condescension and belligerence towered the citizenry. I would like to know where the money is coming from to support these very costly to operate vehicles? A small community like the one mentioned here is probably already financially strapped these days, just trying to get by, and why does a community this small need something like this anyway, it’s ridiculous and dangerous.
I wonder how many people reaise just how easy it is to disable one of these
theres nothing there to warrant this