American Police issued bayonets

[whitewind]

Pentagon Official Doesn't Know Why Local Police Need The Bayonets Feds Gave Them

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/09/pentagon-police_n_5791790.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department official who oversees the program that has sent billions of dollars' worth of military-style equipment to local police over the past several years couldn’t come up with a reason that cops on the streets need bayonets during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

At a hearing examining the issue of police militarization, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked about an NPR investigation that found that nearly 12,000 bayonets had been sent to local police through the Law Enforcement Support Office (also known as the 1033 program) from 2006 through this year.

“What purpose are bayonets being given out for?” Paul asked Alan Estevez, who serves as principal deputy under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.

“Bayonets are available under the program. I can’t answer what a local police force would need a bayonet for,” Estevez said.

“I can give you an answer: none,” Paul said.

Estevez said that the Defense Department does “not push any of this equipment on any police force,” and that the states decide what they need.

The hearing was called by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) in the wake of the aggressive police response to the protests that took place in Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old who was killed by a police officer in the St. Louis suburb.

[whitewind]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/12/militarized-police-california_n_5813014.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

California School Cops Received Military Rifles, Grenade Launchers, Armored Vehicles

School police in several California public school districts are ready for anything -- including, apparently, a small invasion.

The open news website MuckRock found through a recent Freedom of Information Act request that not only are California state and local police departments receiving military-grade equipment from the Department of Defense, but several school police departments are as well.

According to the inventory published by MuckRock, six California school district police departments received equipment from the Department of Defense Excess Property Program, also known as the 1033 Program. The details:

Baldwin Park School Police Department: 3 M16 assault rifles
Kern High School District Police: 30 magazine pouches for M4 assault rifle ammunition
Los Angeles School Police Department: 61 M16 assault rifles, 3 M79 grenade launchers, 1 mine-resistant vehicle
Oakland Unified School Police: utility truck
San Diego Unified Schools Police: 1 mine-resistant vehicle

The M16s were valued at $499 each, the grenade launchers at $720, and the mine-resistant vehicles, or MRAPs, at $733,000.

The Pentagon has been giving surplus military equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies for more than a decade. The militarized police response in Ferguson, Missouri, to protests over the police killing of teenager Michael Brown has prompted some lawmakers to question the use of the military equipment by police. A recent poll found that 51 percent of Americans think it's unnecessary for police to use military weapons for law enforcement.

"The only thing that I know of is a rescue vehicle," Los Angeles School Police Department Sgt. Steve Mayoral explained to The Huffington Post when asked about the rifles, grenade launchers and armored vehicle -- by far the largest haul by a school police department in the state. Mayoral said school police intend to use the mine-resistant vehicle for rescue emergencies. He said he could not confirm the status of the rifles and grenade launchers.

A Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson who requested anonymity confirmed school police received the gear noted in the report. The district, which has 400 sworn officers, has been receiving military weaponry since 2001, the spokesperson said.

The M16 rifles the district received have been modified to fire only one shot with each pull of the trigger, and and have only been used in training, the spokesperson said. An officer must complete 40 hours of training before using the military rifle, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the grenade launchers are the type some police departments use for tear gas and have never been used by the school district, which doesn't have munitions for them. The armored vehicle was received over the summer and hasn't been deployed yet.

The spokesperson said one reason the school district sought the military gear was to prepare for a mass shooting incident like Columbine High School or Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The other California school district that received a mine-resistant vehicle was the San Diego Unified School District Police Department, which, according to NBC San Diego, intends to convert it into a "victim rescue vehicle."

“We recognize the public concern over perceived ‘militarization of law enforcement,’ but nothing could be further from the truth for School Police,” San Diego school police Capt. Joseph Florentino explained, NBC San Diego reported.

One other California school police department -- Stockton Unified School District Police -- received surplus military equipment. It was television monitors, an exercise bicycle, a podium and other non-tactical gear.

Representatives from the other school district police departments that received military gear did not immediately return calls for comment.

Read the FOIA requests and download the full list of equipment here from MuckRock.

[whitewind]

Data Center: See military gear your police department received using controversial program

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2014/09/12/3844318_data-center-see-military-gear.html?rh=1

California police agencies used a federal program to acquire about 420,000 military items worth a total of $150 million from the Pentagon, according to new federal data released by the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

The military gave California police agencies roughly 9,000 M16 assault rifles, 50 mine resistant or armored vehicles and 50 helicopters, along with myriad other items under the program, which was initiated in the mid-1990s.

Most Sacramento police agencies use the program. The Sacramento Sheriff's Department, for instance, acquired more than $9 million in equipment, including eight helicopters (six of which were used for parts). Only two other agencies in the state acquired gear worth more than the equipment obtained by the sheriff's department, the state's data show.

Police response to protests in Ferguson, MO, have caused some, including several U.S. Senators to criticize the "militarization" of police agencies. Law enforcement officials have countered that the Public Safety Procurement Program provided them with essential, modern gear, often during lean times.

This database shows all items acquired by California police agencies from the Pentagon under its Public Safety Procurement Program.

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2014/09/12/3844318_data-center-see-military-gear.html?rh=1

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2014/09/12/3844318_data-center-see-military-gear.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

[Dreamwalker.]

they're totally insane.....

the penny must be near to drop........your bankrupt...please vacate your country in an orderly fashion..so the borrowers can foreclose....

Edited September 16, 2014 by Dreamwalker.

[Auxin]

The bayonettes I can understand.

As long as weed is illegal cops could use them for that. While I dont agree with it, I could even see the logic in having them for meth raids (kids and babies get shot by stray bullets in meth raids here).

But schools shouldnt have M16's and tanks, what the fuck.

I must admit their cleverness with the grenade launchers, tho.

"hey bob, wont people go totally ape-shit crazy when they find out we're stockpiling grenade launchers to use against highschools?"

"dont worry, jim, its easy, we just wont order ammo yet, then when someone asks us about it they'll think we just wanted it for a souveneir. After that we can get the ammo "

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

500 bux for an m16, legit bargain!

[waterboy 2.0]

also got to remember there is a general population that can mostly get their hands on modified firearms like this as one example..... yes if you want you can militarise in the US....and a lot do across a wide demographic, including a lot of god fearing folk.

 

^ like FFS you are not using that for sporting shooting......

If I was law enforcement over there I'd be a little bit hesitant going out and about underequiped

Sad thing is though IMO, "the right to bear arms" which includes assault weaponry will only keep the viscous cycle going.

Thats without "terrorism" and all such shit these days...... US school shootings have certainly changed some viewpoints.

Don't get me wrong....Its all pretty fckd up in my eyes

Edited September 16, 2014 by waterboy

[Optimystic]

Bayonets hrm... maybe they are doing a mass civil war re-enactment

[ThunderIdeal]

Where's the harm in bayonetting a guy after you and your mates pump 30 NATO rounds each into his torso? Old fashioned workmanship that is, not like those shoddy uzi-out-the-window jobs.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xHYGgOXww48

[DiscoStu]

maybe this why they need bayonets?

i kind of agree though fuck twitter

Illinois judge rules police entitled to Swat raid over parody Twitter account

The police hadn’t even come for him. When four fully-armed officers of a Swat team burst into Jacob Elliott’s house in Peoria, Illinois in April they were looking for the source of a parody Twitter feed that had upset the town’s mayor by poking fun at him.

It transpired that one of Elliott’s housemates, Jon Daniel, had created the fake Twitter account, @peoriamayor, and so incensed the real-life official, Jim Ardis, with his make-believe account of drug binges and sex orgiesthat the police were dispatched. Elliott was just a bystander in the affair, but that didn’t stop the Swat team searching his bedroom, looking under his pillow and in a closet where they discovered a bag of marijuana and dope-smoking paraphernalia.

Elliott now faces charges of felony marijuana possession. He has also become the subject of one of the more paradoxical – if not parody – questions in American jurisprudence: can a citizen be prosecuted for dope possession when the police were raiding his home looking for a fake Twitter account?

A Peoria judge this week ruled that the police were entitled to raid the house on North University Street on 15 April under the town’s “false personation” law which makes it illegal to pass yourself off as a public official. Judge Thomas Keith found that police had probable cause to believe they would find materials relevant to the Twitter feed such as computers or flash drives used to create it.

Daniel created the social media feed when he was bored one night and thought he would amuse himself and a handful of friends by deriding the mayor. In a stream of fake comments in 140 characters, he portrayed Ardis as a Tequila-sodden, sex- and drug-addicted oaf. “Im bout to climb the civic center and do some lines on the roof who’s in,” one tweet said.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/19/illinois-judge-swat-raid-parody-twitter-peoria-mayor

[Francois le Danque]

School Police

nuff said...

Edited September 24, 2014 by Franke von Danke