http://reason.com/blog/2013/07/29/concord-nh-cops-want-armored-swat-vehicle The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union [NHCLU] is concerned about over-militarized policing tactics, and for likely good reason: <blockquote>In its grant application to DHS, the police department said New Hampshire's experience with terrorism "slants primarily towards the domestic type," and said "the threat is real and here." "Groups such as the Sovereign Citizens, Free Staters and Occupy New Hampshire are active and present daily challenges," the application stated. In addition to organized groups, it cited "several homegrown clusters that are anti-government and pose problems for law enforcement agencies." [Devon] Chaffee [of NHCLU] called that language "alarming." "It's far from clear to us why an armored vehicle would be necessary to address what are generally, by and large, non-violent movements that in fact provide little or no threat to the security of our state," she said. Since the BearCat is not directly filled with offensive weapons, the police characterize it as no different than a Kevlar vest, essentially. [Lt. Mark] Sanclemente [of Manchester, NH, SWAT] said the vehicle has been used when police serve drug search warrants or respond to incidents involving weapons; it's also gone to surrounding towns when police request assistance.... Sanclemente noted that Manchester's BearCat also is parked in a "low-profile location" during political events such as presidential appearances. "It's nearby, it's not out so that everyone can see it, but it's still close if it's needed." </blockquote>I'm sure it is! Local cops ridin' around in a Bearcat, Jim: these are different times. Free Press publications has the actual application for the vehicle. I wrote a big Reason feature on the Free State Project near its beginnings, back in 2004. Garrett Quinn revisited the topic for us in our June print magazine. </blockquote> Just gotta say it, you all know what I'm thinking.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiX7GTelTPM
I don't know if anyone remembers me talking about how the American police came to buy a ridiculously expensive sniper rifle on the show Sons of Guns, but yesterday I watched that show again and they bought a fully automatic and silenced 40 mm grenade launcher (mark-19), supposedly to fire tear gas grenades. They said it could fire tear gas grenades at 300 meters and explosive grenades at 2000 meters. When the police guy showed up to test it, he was carrying an m16 in his hands for no apperant reason.
So wait....to protect the police from those who are "anti-government"?!?!The Bay of Pigs invasion was supporting people who were anti-government.So was the Berlin wall crisis. So was the the disintegration of the Iraq government.So was the Krushchev thaw, which we took part in supporting. So they want to support anti-government, as long as it's not our own....sounds like a mind fuck to me.
All without batting a eye and without realizing what they are doing is wrong. Goes to show that government does NOT work for us. Simply throwing you a bone to shut us up isn't "working" for us either. Its quite amazing how there isn't major outrage by the average citizen. Public education is working quite well.
that's because the modern education fails to teach that just because it's history doesn't mean it won't repeat itself
Yeah back during my ignorant middle school days being bored to death by public education, kids would ask the cliche "Why do we need to learn history??" To the cliche answer "So we dont repeat the same mistakes". But no teacher, in my limited experience of course, ever once stated what mistake it was that we don't want repeated. Surely they would have mentioned our goose-stepping toward fascism and authoritarianism.