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| Indianapolis Star/Matt Kryger Photo |
The equipping of police departments with military vehicles across the state of Indiana and throughout the United States continues unabated. The Lawrence Police Department is the latest to acquire a mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle from military surplus. The MRAP will be used by the department's SWAT team. "We'd rather have it and never need it than need it and wish we had it," Capt. Gary Woodruff told the Indianapolis Star. Capt. Woodruff says repurposing the military vehicle will "benefit the citizens and help keep the officers safe." Police departments in Morgan, Jefferson and Johnson Counties, Merrillville, Mishawaka, Terre Haute and West Lafayette are among the list of police departments that have become equipped with MRAPs.
10 comments:
It's not just Indiana police. The entire country now has a fully militarized police force.
The walls are coming down, and Americans continue to support armed governmental authority.
I remember watching an interview with the Morgan County Sheriff, this Sargent goof was explaining how returning vets from the war could be local terrorist, that's the reason they purchased the MRAP for their department.
I thought to myself, this guy sounds like one of those leftest I hear talking about how radical the TEA party is!
One important thought:
-Based on the violent crime in Indianapolis and with the upcoming violence anticipated with Black Expo that includes activation of Riot Squads: There is a much greater need to have several Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles on the Indianapolis Police Force than there is a multi-million dollar Cricket field! (Not to mention that if the Police had several MRAP's, they would get a lot more use than the multi-million dollar Cricket field!)
I’m fine with it. A lot of these vehicles are coming back from overseas and are being repurposed and sold for very little to law enforcement. Why should Indiana miss out. These days fire trucks cost upwards of a hundred thousand dollars, so why shouldn’t we take advantage of surplus vehicles we already paid for with our tax dollars. This business of screaming that law enforcement is militarizing to quash the masses of grassroots freedom fighters that are rising up against an evil overlord government is just bull. Our cops aren’t tools of an evil state tamping down noble civil unrest, and people who think that is what this is about are reading too much Infowars. But our local police do get fired upon point blank and I think they deserve all the protection we can afford. The worst that could happen is that our SWAT teams could go a little overboard busting in drug house doors, but the Chief should absolutely reign in the allowable uses for the vehicles and restrict them. With that said, we have huge events here in Indianapolis like the 500 and the SuperBowl and some really large conventions that could be locations for terrorist activity some day. Having some armored vehicles to protect ourselves and our citizens sounds prudent. And these vehicles come at a very good price.
The news reported that the legislature weakened the criminal code in anticipation of Black Expo. The softer laws took effect Tuesday.
Only a few weeks ago, the soft sentence of the person who shot multiple victims at Black Expo in 2010, Shamus Patton, who plead guilty to thirteen charges for his role in a downtown shooting during the 2010 Indiana Black Expo had another sentence added.
Shamus Patton, was sentenced to only eight more years in prison in May 2014 by Marion Superior Judge Grant "Softy" Hawkins for six counts of forgery on job hunting applications last summer.
Patton was serving two years in "Community Corrections" (laugh) as part of his soft suspended sentence for the 2010 multiple shootings at Black Expo.
While he should have been looking for a job, (laugh again) Police said Patton instead was caught last June riding in a car with a convicted felon, two guns and a ski mask.
To Anon@6:37...
You are foolish if you think your police department views you as anything but threat.
No, no, no, you say because you are a law-abiding citizen who supports the police. You don't have anything to worry about. You said, "The worst that could happen is that our SWAT teams could go a little overboard busting in drug house doors, but the Chief should absolutely reign in the allowable uses for the vehicles and restrict them." In the US, SWAT teams terrorize, injure, maim, and kill innocent Americans on a regular basis, and you believe "The Chief" will reign them in???!!
I've got news for you, your police chief and his/her officers view you as nothing but a pre-criminal.
We're all Iraqis now.
I have lived in this State a long time. My parents and my grandparents and my great grandparents were born here. And most of the policemen and women in Indianapolis come from good, strong Indiana families with excellent values and level heads. This popular meme going around that all our cops view Hoosiers as criminals involved in social unrest needing to be arrested and controlled is just nonsense. These are fine young men and women in the force, most of whom graduated from Indiana universities and colleges, many of whom served in our military, who take vows to serve and protect our Indiana citizens. They are not “Iraqis”, East German “Stasi”, or federal government operatives out to crush our tea party and subdue returning war veterans. I just don’t know where all the conspiracy theories come from these days, but most of them are absolutely ridiculous. We have acquired a few surplus war vehicles to use here in Indiana. People who want to turn that into “the militarization of police” are not really connecting with reality. There are medications to control paranoia.
The problem is, liberals can't admit that they made a mistake electing King Obama twice, so they start blaming everyone else for tromping on their rights.
Maybe some day they will awaken and find out just what a problem they caused.
"It can be used in the case of a bomb threat or a flood or a terrorist attack and it was free."
Really, and how many situations have occurred in Lawrence where this thing would be useful?
And free is not free when you consider how much one of these costs to operate and maintain.
I am very happy about these developments. Sincerely, Optimus Prime
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