Small Iowa Town Police Are Proud of Their New MRAP

[HoneyBadger]

http://www.dailyiowan.com/2014/04/08...ons/37365.html

Byrd: The new Washington war machine
BY MATTHEW BYRD | APRIL 08, 2014 5:00 AM

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 effects of cops moving from handguns to assault rifles and being equipped with tanks, bazookas, and Kevlar has been twofold. First, civil liberties have absolutely been eroded, with police-brutality rates skyrocketing in last decade according to the Justice Department. Not only that, but, with the influx of military gear into local police forces, cops begin to view themselves as soldiers whose main job is combat rather than keeping the peace. How else can you explain the rise in police shootings since 9/11?
But hey, the sheriff gets to ride around in a sweet new MRAP and pretend he’s Rambo so, you know, let’s call it a draw.

[HBARleatherneck]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/sto...olice/7337463/

the video mentioned in the article

[rondog]

Hey, they might have to chase a kid on a dirt bike through a corn field someday.....and there could be landmines in that corn field! Hey, it's possible Jack.....

[cstone]

The Radley Balko book was a good read. He is a bit left of center for me, but he put together an interesting collection of stories to fill out his focus on the militarization of civilian law enforcement in the US. If you have the time, give it a look.

[275RLTW]

Greeley PD has had one for a bit now...

[02ducky]

Hey, it's a good thing we don't have to fear the state or federal government.

[blacklabel]

Hey, it's a good thing we don't have to fear the state or federal government.

To protect and serve.

[lead_magnet]

The need for a Law Enforcement Agency to have bullet resistant vehicle is very realistic. One reason would be to reach a downed officer or injured person when it would otherwise be unsafe, i.e. barricaded suspect, unknown suspect location, etc. Another reason some agencies get these vehicles is so that they can remain somewhat operable during flood/blizzard/disaster conditions. They can serve much more than a tactical purpose. An MRAP is a bit overkill but you get what you can get. I don't see BMW offering to give away any of their bullet-proof security vehicles. The military however does give free vehicles to agencies with a limited budget. The waiting list for one of those is very long (think 4 years if you're lucky) and you don't really get to choose which model you get.

The agency where I live has a military donated HUMVEE to be used in the event the streets are impassable by normal vehicles or if they need to relay people to and from their homes to an emergency shelter. A tornado came within a mile of this town last year, though it was small and wouldn't have done too much damage and only took out a grain tower. We also are very close to the Arkansas river which has flooded other nearby communities in the past. The HUMVEE really doesn't have any tactical application (its slow, gets crappy mileage, sucks to drive, and you could probably shoot through the doors with a 22lr) but the possibility for its use is not far fetched at all. Plus the kids dig seeing it in the parades. I'm sure if they had the opportunity to upgrade to another HUMVEE with ballistic resistance they would, and I can see why.

So, in short, I admit I don't know anything about the agency in question here, or their intentions for the vehicle, or what the most likely environmental hazards that community faces. What I do know, is that if there were 3-4 feet of water in a town and I needed to get people to safety, this 10 ft. tall 50,000 lb six wheeled vehicle would probably be nice to have. But I'm no doctor...

[blacklabel]

Yep, that's why they're getting grants for MRAPs. Floods.

Seems like this makes more sense.

[HBARleatherneck]

there are dozens of videos showing how horrible mraps do in mud and sand. so they really have no use that way.

there were roughly 70 LEO killed in the line of duty last year. (not traffic accidents, actual slayings) so every department in the country needs an mrap in preparation for this almost non existent possibility? no they are getting these to have a dick measuring contest with other departments. A humvee and an mrap are not the same. if they were getting surplus 5 tons I could see the use. by the time a department can deploy one of these things the situation would likely be over. its about a show.

and having some guy who rarely drives a big vehicle driving a 50 ton vehicle on our streets is probably going to cause more death than it prevents. I know you can try to justify it however you want, it doesnt wash.

680,000 cops in the US. 70 actually killed by criminals is pretty low. more die in traffic accidents. Crime is down across the board and has been going down for years. A handful of high profile shootings that the media blow up and now everyone is gearing up for WW3.