Ah, the
Heartland. Amber waves of grain, apple pie, and mine-resistant
ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles. After all,
assures Pulaski County Sheriff Michael Gayer, “the United
States of America has become a war zone.”
In case you couldn’t hear him over all that shelling, the
sheriff of a safe,
rural, 13,000-person county needs a 60,000-lbs vehicle designed to
weather asymmetrical attacks inflicted by Iraqis with roadside
bombs because “it’s a lot more intimidating than a Dodge.” That’s
what protecting and serving is all about, right? Gayer goes on:
There’s violence in the workplace, there’s violence in schools
and there’s violence in the streets. You are seeing police
departments going to a semi-military format because of the threats
we have to counteract. If driving a military vehicle is going to
protect officers, then that’s what I’m going to do.
Or, as the Indianapolis Star explains,
“agencies with small budgets [are] turning to military surplus
equipment to take advantage of bargains” on things like MRAPs,
which proved to be
too top heavy for the mountainous terrain in Afghanistan, and
are now being sold cheaply or scrapped. That makes a little more
sense, since violent crime in the U.S. has
dropped to a 40-year low.
The Star describes Gayer as one of Indiana’s “most
prolific applicants for military surplus items.” He’s got so much
winter warfare camouflage and night vision shit,
you’d think Pulaski County was living out Red Dawn.
But what if Gayer and his men are busy doing boring, normal cop
stuff Grenada takes its revenge? Don’t worry, as the Star
documents,
a bunch of other counties in Indiana have been collecting their own
MRAPs and other toys.
Check out this Johnson County officer looking like a total
warrior, driving his battle-mobile through the deadly combat zone
that is rural Indiana. Are those Chechen mercenaries behind the
corn stalks?
from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1hEkY3l
via IFTTT