San Diego School District's New 18-Ton Armored Vehicle Creates Stir

[Malthus]

I am sitting in downtown Edmonton right now, and Seedy is right, it is just frozen tundra as far as the eye can see, broken up by the occasional gibbet with some poor French speaker dangling from it.

What marks the downtown anyway? A convergance of paths in the tundra? Increased frequency of francophone gibbets? 

[Razgovory]

The reason it makes a good example is that Branch Davidians were heavily armed and in this country you sometimes have very heavily armed loonies.  In cases like that, want law enforcement to have superior equipment, and there was no "we have to kill everyone to save them" mentality there.  The religious nuts had set the fire.  Actually the worst case scenario did not occur.  The worst case scenario would be the cultists waging their apocalyptic war (which was what they were preparing for with all those guns) on the public.

Is there any evidence of this war upon the public?

Seems to me it would make better sense to choose as one's example a case in which use of armoured vehicles actually saved the day, rather than a notorious fuck-up which got all of the children (the safety of which was the alleged reason for the final raid) killed.

They were buying a lot of weapons and black powder and thought there would be an apocalyptic war in the future.  In my book that makes that them dangerous loonies.  I used them as an example because they were dangerous loonies and the that officers who were shot may not have been shot had they had suitable armored vehicles to get behind.

[Berkut]

The reason it makes a good example is that Branch Davidians were heavily armed and in this country you sometimes have very heavily armed loonies.  In cases like that, want law enforcement to have superior equipment, and there was no "we have to kill everyone to save them" mentality there.  The religious nuts had set the fire.  Actually the worst case scenario did not occur.  The worst case scenario would be the cultists waging their apocalyptic war (which was what they were preparing for with all those guns) on the public.

Is there any evidence of this war upon the public?

Seems to me it would make better sense to choose as one's example a case in which use of armoured vehicles actually saved the day, rather than a notorious fuck-up which got all of the children (the safety of which was the alleged reason for the final raid) killed.

They were buying a lot of weapons and black powder and thought there would be an apocalyptic war in the future.  In my book that makes that them dangerous loonies.  I used them as an example because they were dangerous loonies and the that officers who were shot may not have been shot had they had suitable armored vehicles to get behind.

The ATF is a specialized federal law enforcement agency. If we grant that they might have a use for armored vehicles once every twenty years or so, that doesn't suggest that all police forces need them.

[Razgovory]

That's fine.  I never said that all police forces need them.  In fact, I said that they probably don't.

[garbon]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/17/us-usa-california-school-weapons-idUSKBN0HC0N320140917

Los Angeles schools police to return grenade launchers to U.S.

Los Angeles schools' police said on Tuesday it would give up three grenade launchers it acquired for free through a federal program now facing mounting scrutiny for supplying local agencies with military-grade equipment, the L.A Times newspaper reported.

The move follows scrutiny over the Department of Defense's program, begun in 1991, which gives unused equipment to police forces across the U.S., including ones that serve school districts.

The Los Angeles School Police Department, which serves the nation's second-largest school system, would keep 61 rifles and an armored vehicle built to withstand roadside bombs, the newspaper said.

Reuters could not independently verify the report.

A police sergeant who declined to be named confirmed the department had the equipment and said it is needed "for the safety of staff, students, and personnel" but could not confirm what if anything the department was relinquishing.

The Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, and the grenade launchers, would only have been used in "very specific circumstances," he added, without elaborating.

President Barack Obama ordered a review of the program out of concern at how such equipment had been used during racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting death of a black teen by a white policeman last month.

Images of police wielding military-style guns and armor flanked by armored vehicles as they clashed with protesters helped to fuel a national debate on policing tactics in the U.S.

Debate has also simmered in part over the extent to which an increase in armed police and school officials can prevent higher death tolls in shooting rampages at U.S. schools.

Civil rights and education groups called for an end to the program supplying school system police in a letter to the Department of Defense on Monday. The Los Angeles School Police Department assigns officers to school campuses and they also patrol the surrounding areas.

"Adding the presence of military-grade weapons to school climates that have become increasingly hostile due to their overreliance on police to handle routine student discipline can only exacerbate existing tensions," the letter said.

The Pentagon has transferred more than $4 billion of equipment including armored vehicles, tents, rifles and night- vision goggles to local and state agencies since 2006.

School districts in Texas, Michigan, Georgia, and other states have received equipment, U.S. media reported.

Other California schools districts have participated in the program, gathering supplies ranging from rifles to exercise equipment and televisions, the Times reported.

[DGuller]

 

[Malthus]

I am eager to learn why a school board needs an armoured car ... but I am delighted to hear that they no longer require grenade launchers. 

[HVC]

I am eager to learn why a school board needs an armoured car

have you not seen kindergarten cop? You never know when an insane criminal and his mother might try to kidnap one of your students.

[derspiess]

but I am delighted to hear that they no longer require grenade launchers. 

I'd be pissed if I were a San Diego school cop.  Those things are fun to shoot-- even just with the chalk training rounds we used.

[Malthus]

but I am delighted to hear that they no longer require grenade launchers. 

I'd be pissed if I were a San Diego school cop.  Those things are fun to shoot-- even just with the chalk training rounds we used.

I wonder how fun it would be to lob one into a crowded playground.  I guess the San Diego cops may never find out, now.

[garbon]

I am eager to learn why a school board needs an armoured car ... but I am delighted to hear that they no longer require grenade launchers. 

Hey this wasn't a school board. It was the LA School Cops.

[CountDeMoney]

Ironically, the only school police department that would need grenade launchers would be LA's.

[derspiess]

Besides, there are 40mm smoke & tear gas grenades.  And we know riot cops never shoot those directly at individuals.

[CountDeMoney]

Yeah, the grenade launchers get a bad rap because of its name, but it's great when it comes to gas for crowd control.

[Ed Anger]

Bring back the M79