Daily Mail – by ALEX GREIGA California police department has received a 37,000 armored truck that was once used in military training exercises.
The Salinas Police Department took ownership of the hulking tank-like vehicle on December 17 and parked it in front of the town’s Rotunda for public viewing.
The $650,000 truck has caused quite a stir in the town, with many residents questioning why a military armored vehicle would be needed in civilian situations.
New toy: (left to right) SWAT officers Detective Rivera, Detective McKinley, Sergeant Murray, Chief McMillin and Detective Fors pose in front of the new vehicle
The truck provides protection from handgun and rifle fire as well as explosions. It will be used for the Salinas SWAT team and can transport eight to 10 officers at a time.
In a press release, Police chief Kelly McMillin said the department was in desperate need of a replacement for the 1986 Ford money carrier officers used as a rescue vehicle.
‘For some time the converted armored car has been in very poor condition; the roof leaks water and the vehicle has been in constant need of mechanical repair. Due to its low ballistic rating the armored car never truly provided adequate protection,’ reads the release.
McMillin says the vehicle came to the department free of charge as part of the 1033 program which reallocates government equipment for use by law enforcement agencies.
It has never been deployed abroad.
A picture posted of the vehicle on the Salinas Police Department’s Facebook page garnered varied responses, from enthusiastic support to suspicion.
‘That armored vehicle is a disgrace to cops,’ wrote one commentator. ‘…What happened to courage, honor, integrity. That vehicle is made for war. Do not use my safety to justify that vehicle. To better protect me, it’s a joke. Come clean and tell the truth. The Salinas Police Department is just a bunch of cowards that want to use that vehicle as intimidation and to terrorize the citizens of this city.’
Bigger parking spot: The huge military truck is the newest addition to the police department’s fleet of vehicles
Another said, ‘The Salinas Police Department shows courage, honor and integrity each day they go out on the streets to protect us. This vehicle will not intimidate any law abiding citizens. If it offends gang members…..GOOD!
McMillin says the vehicle, while imposing, will only be used to protect citizens and officers, but some members of the community feel that such a war-like vehicle is unnecessary.
‘To stop gang members? Hmmm gang members don’t riot in mass numbers. It’s right in front of our faces and we don’t see it. Why would the ARMY!!! give something like that for FREE!!! Let’s think for once people,’ said a Facebook commentator.
Another agreed: ‘And Obama said we don’t need military weapons in hands of citizens!’
Chief Kelly McMillin responded on the Salinas Police Department’s Facebook page.
‘I have been reading with great interest the comments of those who feel strongly about this vehicle and the implications it has as regards the policing of Salinas,’ he wrote.
‘Every man and woman in the Salinas Police Department took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. We take that oath seriously. I thank God we live in a country where we can have this conversation, challenge each other, and challenge the government on how it does its job. Even though I may not agree with all of you, thanks for having a civil discussion.’
According to KSBW, the truck’s height has already helped the force arrest a dangerous suspect, who was spotted by police running from several blocks away.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2527699/California-police-department-gets-650-000-37-000lb-armored-military-truck.html#ixzz2oA5Uls20
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For what? I used to live in Monterey, and I highly doubt that the city of Salinas has more than 155,000 people living there. This is overkill and a big waste of money.
Geez Louise!
. . .
155,000 people capable of tossing baby food jars of paint at the windows?
Totally over priced sardine can if it cant move.
I can picture these goons pulling that machine up and getting out of it during the soon coming conflict, and being taken out and loosing the vehicle to the patriot warriors who paid for it with their hard earned confiscated tax money.
I know right? These guys on the Salinas police force have no clue what to do with something like this I can assure you. Salinas is not a big town like say Boston.
Heck, Fort Ord, or most of it has been closed and sold off to the University of California Monterey Bay. I think the only military left in Monterey County is Ft. Hunter Liggett, The Defense Language Institute, and the Naval Postgraduate School.
. . .
My grandpa had a home in PG 8 blocks up the hill from the language school and a block over,great area!On a side note,thermite folks,will not run with a melted engine!
Wow… $650,000 for a tank they don’t need, yet they can’t use that money to help fix the education system and to help their bankrupt economy or to get rid of a few illegals or to help the homeless etc. etc. etc.
Does that make any sense to anyone?
Oh that’s right! It’s all about keeping us safe and secure. Everything else takes a back door.
And…..why do they need that? Especially since they have 20 police cars surrounding the house of one gunman? Overkill? Probably.
Oh yea, that’s right. They need it so that they can keep fighting that war on crime…I mean terror in our neighborhoods (what war? what terror) Oh right, that’s just their excuse so they can continue getting funding from DHS. Otherwise they will go bankrupt and if they don’t show results in using it, then they won’t get anymore funding. Just like when the college campus cops have to call the FBI whenever there is a shooting or a person with a gun on campus. Otherwise, they won’t get their funding and will go bankrupt.
Ever notice how all of these public institutions are going bankrupt by design and all of a sudden in comes DHS to coincidentally save the day by blackmailing them and not one word of it goes public? It’s all quietly done covertly. Why don’t these institutions just shut down and go bankrupt already or go public or stand up to these bastards? Why give in to this tyrannical police state bullshit? It’s insane! Just drop the damn ball already and FIGHT!
Instead they just become a slave to the Military Industrial Complex. So sad.
“Another said, ‘The Salinas Police Department shows courage, honor and integrity each day they go out on the streets to protect us. This vehicle will not intimidate any law abiding citizens. If it offends gang members…..GOOD!”
God help us all!
:lol :
NC,do you not like the vehicle?!
wonder what kind of mileage that thing gets>
Yes several police departments in my state of Co. have gotten them as well. A total police state is just one false flag away
Dont be in front of one at 60mph! Funny armor vehical fail http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rjyfGyFdds
and hope the military included all the spare parts to keep it on the road…
thats funny hahaha. i’ll remember that.
Hahahaha! That’s excellent information. Good to know. Thanks, ARF. I’ll remember that, too.
At least that’s another thing we can do to stop these tanks. Make them stop to a screeching halt, PERMANENTLY!
It really comes down to an inept group of psyhcos that cant get anything right…And they think they can rule the world…they can bearly wipe their own asses!
Yep, they can barely wipe their own asses and that video says it all as it’s ass just fell apart when it hit its breaks. lol
A simple kids toy will stop most any truck…a buried “I” beam as a teter toter..the front wheels push down the teter and the toter sicks up and takes out the rearend…High tech loses again…much like the vietcong…sks’s, ak47’s, rpg’s and right on their side…against B52’s, agent orange, unlimited troops, bombs and all the high tech…Hum?? who won?? RIGHT always has the advantage…
Yep, you can have all the high tech gear in the world, but there will always still be a weakness to it.
That is why these asshole elites will never understand that you can try and pass more security and tighten your measures, but there will always be a weakness. The bottom line, No one is EVER fully safe. Not even the elite.
Also, despite what the elite think, they are just as human as the rest of us. They came into this world just like the rest of us and they can leave this world just like the rest of us. We bleed and so do they.
Notice how in the picture all of the SWAT are wearing sunglasses to hide their eyes. The bastards think they are men, but they don’t even have the balls to stare at you with their own eyes. The bastards think they are Secret Service. However, seeing as how these SWAT bastards are the police, I guess we can now call them the “Secret Police”, right?
These guys are such cowards. At least when I look at someone, I don’t have to hide behind something to do it.
Then they use the excuse, “Well, we wear it so that we can look around the area without you knowing and making you think that we are always staring at you.”
COWARDS!!! If you ain’t got nothing to hide, then what’s the problem?
Puppy killers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is all designed to garner more support/cooperation from the local police forces, by the military/feds.
Probably work, too.
Those vehicles will be used to roll through protesters. To mow them down will become policy, a means of dispersal specifically to terrorize.
As for the camo those cops are wearing it looks like Waffen SS flecktarn and is in keeping with other totalitarian designs borrowed from the Nazis…the black police gear reminiscent of Hitler’s SS, and the shape of the helmet of which Herman Goering said, “There is no piece of engineering to compare to the German stahlhelm.” Although the US improved it from steel to kevlar.
Relax….it’s just a bunch of kids with a new toy, and it’s not going to make them any more of a threat than they are now.
It’s also not “wasted money”, because it’s army surplus, which means the money was already spent by the Pentagon, and these idiots got it for free. It would be more if a waste if it weren’t put to use.
The people of Salinas should be happy about this thing. Let the P.D. maintain the vehicle for you, and take it from them when you need it.
Do you see the inbred buffoons standing in front of the thing? They have a combined I.Q. that’s less than 100. Mow ’em down and you got yourself a nice truck. What are you crying about?