MassPrivateIFlorida – As police confronted Antonio Cardoza, armed and barricaded in his home, onlookers were slack-jawed at the sight of a tank-like vehicle with turrets and sharpshooters that was stalking the neighborhood.
Twenty feet long, weighing close to eight tons, capable of nimble turns and hitting highway speeds, the imposing militarized machine trekked along Northeast 204th Street as negotiators tried to get Cardoza to stand down.
He didn’t, and was shot during an exchange of gunfire, then taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he remains in stable condition.
Two days later, the machine showed up in another residential neighborhood in Miami Gardens, less than a mile from where Cardoza was shot. This time, police spent more than six hours trying to talk Franklin Bain — wanted for false imprisonment and sexual battery — out of his home.
Cardoza was shot and Bain was tear-gassed from his home, but no officers were hurt in either incident —and that’s the point: The Miami-Dade County Police Department’s Bearcat is outfitted with enough body armor to withstand high-powered rifle shots and explosions, and carries enough weaponry to overpower most threats.
“When I saw it, I thought somebody’s gonna die,” said Amp Sheffield, 30, a neighbor of Cardoza’s who watched the confrontation unfold. “They going to war or something?”
The police department’s use of the Bearcat, at first, appeared to be top secret. Though the machine is now being used by federal and local law enforcement throughout country, county cops treated its uses with the sensitivity of a nuclear launch code.
“The information you are requesting regarding the deployment, use and criteria is information that is sensitive in nature and cannot be discussed,” Detective Elena Hernandez said.
Later, after several requests for information, county police owned up to having purchased three of the machines, two SuperBear Coms and a Bearcat.
“This vehicle not only assists tactical personnel during their deployment around a structure, but it also can be utilized to effect victim rescues where an individual may be pinned down as a result of rifle or handgun fire,” said Jorge Herrera, a lieutenant with the department’s Special Response Team.
The Bearcat, a ballistic engineered armored response counterattack truck that looks like a Humvee on steroids, is operated by SRT, and costs a whopping $250,000!
The war-like vehicle also has a rotating roof hatch that can support weaponry, an almost impenetrable shell, multiple gun ports, and bullet-proof glass. At about 10 feet tall, it can fit up to 10 passengers, and comes in four- or six-wheel configurations. New Hampshire legislators are considering banning it after a state representative introduced a bill last month. State Rep. J.R. Hoell believes far too many local police agencies spent an abundance of Homeland Security money on unnecessary militarized vehicles.
“There’s a large potential for abuse by having equipment intent for the battlefield in the hands of police,” Hoell said. “These are not vehicles on the current market intended for civilians to use. There’s no reason for these arms to be in the hands of civilian law enforcement.”
If the militaryesque machine looks familiar, it’s because national cable news stations couldn’t get enough of the vehicles as they patrolled Boston’s streets last April while law enforcement searched for marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
It’s hard to get an exact take on how many local police departments have bought Bearcats. The owner of Lenco Armored Vehicles, which designs and manufactures the machines, couldn’t be reached this week and nobody was permitted to speak for him.
According to Lenco’s website, about three dozen agencies use the Bearcat, including New York City and Los Angeles. The only other agency listed in Florida that uses the Bearcat is the Tallahassee Police Department.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/14/3994536/miami-dade-cops-roll-out-8-ton.html
TSA police now showing up at parades:
Portland ME – St. Patrick’s Day festivities are underway in Maine’s largest city. The celebration of Irish and Celtic heritage is not reserved for one single day, but rather the entire weekend.
The 8th annual St. Patrick’s Parade kicked off Sunday in honor of Ireland’s Patron Saint and the Irish American community in Maine.
Pipe Bands, dignitaries and the flags of all the counties of Ireland were on display.
The parade route stretched from the Portland Fish Pier to the Maine State Pier. About .8 miles on Commercial Street.
During the parade, Transportation Security Administration officers were visibly guarding the parade route. An estimated 10,000 people attended the parade this year.
Why would our gov’t. allow the TSA to harass & molest citizens in our streets, where’s the outrage? Why do local police go along with such an obvious Police State tactic? The TSA belongs in airports only! They don’t belong on buses, trains. parades & marathons!
WE HAVE NEARLY A MILLION POLICE OFFICERS IN THE ‘LAND OF THE FREE’!
State and local law enforcement agencies employed more than 1.1 million persons on a full-time basis, including about 765,000 sworn personnel (defined as those with general arrest powers). Agencies also employed approximately 100,000 part-time employees, including 44,000 sworn officers. Click here to read more.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is another branch with numerous federal law enforcement agencies reporting to it. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS), United States Secret Service(USSS), United States Coast Guard (USCG),Homeland security investigations (HSI), and theTransportation Security Administration (TSA) are some of the agencies that report to DHS. It should be noted that the United States Coast Guard is assigned to the United States Department of Defensein the event of war, and operates under the Department of Homeland Security during peacetime.
http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article/272266/2/Celebrating-St-Patricks-Day-all-weekend-long
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_the_United_States
Gun owners being tracked in a national database accessible by police:
Maryland – So there the Filippidises were on New Year’s Eve eve, southbound on Interstate 95 — John; wife Kally (his Gulf High sweetheart); the 17-year-old twins Nasia and Yianni; and 13-year-old Gina in their 2012 Ford Expedition — just barely out of the Fort McHenry Tunnel into Maryland, blissfully unarmed and minding their own business when they noticed they were being bird-dogged by an unmarked patrol car. It flanked them a while, then pulled ahead of them, then fell in behind them.
“Ten minutes he’s behind us,” John says. “We weren’t speeding. In fact, lots of other cars were whizzing past.”
“You know you have a police car behind you, you don’t speed, right?” Kally adds.
Says John, “We keep wondering, is he going to do something?”
Finally the patrol car’s emergency lights come on, and it’s almost a relief. Whatever was going on, they’d be able to get it over with now. The officer — from the Transportation Authority Police, as it turns out, Maryland’s version of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority — strolls up, does the license and registration bit, and returns to his car.
Finally the patrol car’s emergency lights come on, and it’s almost a relief. Whatever was going on, they’d be able to get it over with now. The officer — from the Transportation Authority Police, as it turns out, Maryland’s version of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority — strolls up, does the license and registration bit, and returns to his car. (Why is the TSA allowed to stop citizens on a public road?)
According to Kally and John (but not MTAP, which, pending investigation, could not comment), what happened next went like this:
Ten minutes later he’s back, and he wants John out of the Expedition. Retreating to the space between the SUV and the unmarked car, the officer orders John to hook his thumbs behind his back and spread his feet. “You own a gun,” the officer says. “Where is it?”
“At home in my safe,” John answers.
“Don’t move,” says the officer.
Now he’s at the passenger’s window. “Your husband owns a gun,” he says. “Where is it?”
First Kally says, “I don’t know.” Retelling it later she says, “And that’s all I should have said.” Instead, attempting to be helpful, she added, “Maybe in the glove [box]. Maybe in the console. I’m scared of it. I don’t want to have anything to do with it. I might shoot right through my foot.”
The officer came back to John. “You’re a liar. You’re lying to me. Your family says you have it. Where is the gun? Tell me where it is and we can resolve this right now.”
http://tbo.com/list/columns-tjackson/jackson-gun-owner-unarmed-unwelcome-in-maryland-20140112/
————-
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2014/03/police-roll-out-8-ton-tank-armored.html
Children showing off their new toy.
Not children.. Paranoid cowards.
Abused by an authoritarian alcoholic parents as children and raised on video games, junk food and Rx Drugs, these emotionally disturbed, adolescent minds, now in the bodies of 250 pound possessed skinheads, intoxicated on high powered steroids and psychotropics, with major anger issues, and the need to control with brute force anyone who opposes them, are the new ticking time bomb militarized fascist polizei, hardwired to explode at the slightest provocation.
Place them behind the wheel of a vehicle that reflects exactly who they think they are and ‘volia’…they become Immortal Gods.
Got some adequate IED’s in your personal arsenal?
They call conservatives paranoid? These people have some serious mental and emotional problems. Scared of their own shadow. These are not peace officers. They are cowardly pitiable creatures. Plice I know never used such things. They actually went in after the bad guys, who really were bad guys who hurt people. Just shaking my head. Any of these show up in your neighborhood they need to be taken away, and whom ever authorized it recalled and booted out of office. Recall still can work to some extent. Good thing to try and use while it is possible.
It is bad enough when these paranoid murderers gun down innocent citizens in a traffic stop and get away with it. Now they have to drive into a neighborhood with a Armored Combat Vehicle. To me this is just an extension of their penis. Good question, why don’t people recall the mayors and governors who approve these kind of things.
Suspect they are working so dambed hard they don’t have the time just to keep a roof and food for their family. Economically crushed, and/or spending a lot on ammo for the coming war whatever form it takes. My speculation. Don’t have answered other than what Mark and Don suggest.
The maintenance on these vehicles over time will be what kills this “program”
once the city finds out how much money this will take out of their yearly bonuses to keep these death traps up and running..nothing will be said, but these hunks of crap wont be going too far in the next 5 to 7 years they will start to have issues, and without a competent mechanic and a parts supply with enough capitol to back it up and these things will be junk heaps in 15 years
Hell…in my fictional account of the future….patriotic-armed resistance will just stay out of this things way…until the “10” people inside have to get out and try to do something on foot….in the “hood”…then they will be ripped to shreds by the American Partisans who are trying to save our Constitutional Republic…if all you can do is drive through peaceful neighborhoods and blow things up…and you cannot get out and “control” the area…then the POS Equipment isn’t much good for you..eh? Not to mention the creative juices that start to flow when dedicated Americans decide they have had enough of this idiocy…I mean…in my fictional account..they couldn’t keep their homes…their wives and their kids locked up in one of these things…so every decision has its’ price..eh?
RJ O’Guillory
Author-
Webster Groves – The Life of an Insane Family
spot on , Guillory