Police State USAA recent weapons purchase by NASA piqued the interest of some of my readers, prompting questions such as, “What is NASA doing with assault rifles?” In post 9/11 America, no self-respecting federal agency — from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Education — can exist without its own SWAT team. A strong trend of militarizing law enforcement has been occurring for some time, and if this is a surprise to you, its time to catch up. Yes, even NASA has a SWAT team, and you may be surprised with some of their assignments, which include militarized perimeter security and robbing grandmothers of heirloom decorative paperweights.
One of NASA’s $250,000 Lenco Bearcat (Source: LuisSantanaPhoto.com)
NASA’s recent purchase of Armalite AR-15 rifles, documented on FedBizOpps.gov, is only the tip of the iceberg regarding NASA’s equipment and capabilities. The space agency also has its own police department and round-the-clock SWAT team.
The purpose of all this security is protection from “troublemakers,” as the agency states, as well as criminal investigations, which I will discuss shortly.
Some security is surely warranted to protect NASA’s equipment and personnel. How much? I will leave that for you to decide.
NASA.gov describes its SWAT team in a post they titled, SWATting Trouble:
Along with the formidable force of standard security at Kennedy, a highly trained and specialized group of guardians protect the Center from would-be troublemakers. They are the members of the Kennedy Space Center Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team and they mean business.
“We’re here 24-7,” said SWAT commander David Fernandez. “There’s never a point when SWAT is not here, so we’re ready to respond to something if needed at a moment’s notice.”
The SWAT team is equipped with helicopter(s) and armored Lenco Bearcat vehicles — priced at $250,000 each — both of which the agency enjoys taking selfie pictures with.
(Source: tactical-life.com)
Is this the same bureaucratic agency that people claimed could not possibly have its budget trimmed? Hmm.
NASA Emergency Response Team in a helicopter patrol (Source: Flickr)
So what does all this get used for? Let’s have a look.
Its not entirely clear why it is necessary to patrol the property with a sharpshooter dangling a sniper rifle out the side of a helicopter. But NASA isn’t going to give Al Qaeda any chances.
Besides the excitement of pretending the property is surrounded by hostile military forces, NASA’s police are used for crowd control. When the astronauts come out for a photo-op, men with rifles separate them from their fans.
These exaggerated security measures may or may not impress you. But what about when NASA cops leave the space station to perform undercover sting operations?
(Source: Facebook)
In May 2011, a 74-year-old grandmother from California was the subject of one such SWAT sting operation, performed to seize a piece of her personal property without compensation.
Joann Davis, needing to raise money to care for her sick son, decided to sell a gift that was given to her husband 42 years earlier by astronaut Niel Armstrong. Davis’ husband, who passed away in 1986, was a space-engineer, NASA-contractor, and friend of Armstrong’s. Davis received from him a speck of dust from the moon, embedded into a decorative paperweight.
The moon-dust paperweight is quite rare and valuable, and Davis attempted to sell for funds to treat her son’s illness and contribute to her children’s inheritance. When she reached out for potential buyers, and after months of searching, she unwittingly linked up with a secret federal agent.
“I felt raped,” said Joann Davis after meeting NASA’s SWAT team (Source: CBS News)
Davis and the undercover agent agreed to meet up at a Denny’s restaurant in Lake Elsinore, CA. As Davis sat across from the would-be buyer, an armed team of NASA cops waited outside. When she placed the paperweight on the table, the strike team made their entrance.
Davis recalled to CBS, “Someone is grabbing me from the back. Now they’re pulling me out of the booth and they have a hold of me pretty darn good, and the force was like, unnecessary … because I’m like 110 (pounds). I’m four-foot-eleven.”
“They dragged me out of Denny’s,” she said. “I was scared. Really scared.”
The decorative paperweight holding moon dust that brought Joann Davis a visit from SWAT (Source: AP / DailyMail)
The agents manhandled her so forcefully that she suffered deep bruising, and the shock of the raid was so intense that she lost control of her bladder. She was detained and interrogated in the parking lot.
“I peed in my pants and I stood there dripping wet for over two hours,” she told the Orange County Register. “I was so mad. Humiliated, but mad. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
She said it looked like a SWAT team. She wants her property back.
“It’s a very upsetting thing,” Davis told The Associated Press. “It’s very detrimental, very humiliating, all of it a lie.”
Peter Schlueter, Davis’ attorney, told CBS News, “There’s no such law that moon rocks belong to the federal government. There are laws about stealing from the federal government and I understand that, and if anybody could show that these moon rocks were stolen from the federal government, that’s a horse of a different color, but they haven’t shown that.”
Davis was not charged with a crime. The NASA cops simply roughed her up and stole her property.
“I felt humiliated,” Davis said. “I felt, this may not be proper to say, but I tell you, I felt raped. I really did.”
http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/why-does-nasa-need-a-swat-team-to-steal-moon-dust-from-retirees/
Why does NASA need a SWAT team?
Why isn’t it obvious? It’s to protect us from those 200,000 people who are on their way to Mars in 2023. Duh!
I mean come on. Everyone of them is a terrorist, don’t ya know? They hate their country and their world and want freedom. That’s why they are leaving. They could come back and kill us with a death ray or something. We have to protect ourselves from extra-terrestrial enemy combatants and threats like them.
Sheesh! Do I really have to teach you all everything? Man, you guys just aren’t thinking like good Communists. (sarcasm)
Seeing as how NASA’s budget has gone almost bankrupt and all our shuttles are being taken off from Russia, it’s a wonder they can even afford a SWAT team 24/7 and a $250,000 helicopter so they can take pictures. Glad to see our tax dollars go to something constructive. (sarcasm)
So how come NOAA or the Social Security Administration doesn’t have a SWAT team yet? I’m sure that isn’t too far off, don’t ya think?
I can understand NASA having a SWAT team. But only for us on NASA facilities.
Technology, assets, etc run into big bucks. Either historical, current, or under development, these can become high profile targets. Plus with the dangerous chemicals and fuels used in their programs, I can see how a specially trained force that knows what is where, what goes boom, and how to handle and protect it.
That being said, by what legal authority does the NASA SWAT team have law enforcement authority outside of NASA facilities?
These officers should be liable for civil actions, and possibly arrest for grand theft, assault, illegal imprisonment, and felony under cover of shield.
The growing trend that every agency, department, and bureau has unlimited policing powers wherever they lay claim to is disturbing. Checks and limits to police powers are continually evaporating as restrictions and constraints on the individual increase. And a Justice Department that refuses to reign in on overreach and abuses only serves to encourage things. That encouragement, both tacit and overt, only leads one to believe that the unfettered expansion of the police state is intentional and by design.
While gun grabbers try to tell us this isn’t the wild west, and we don’t need firearms anymore, the government agencies invoke that classic western line “Badges, we don’t need no stinkin’ badges” as they rape and pillage both out rights and property.
The only kind of gun a bureaucrat needs shoots staples.
“The growing trend that every agency, department, and bureau has unlimited policing powers wherever they lay claim to is disturbing. Checks and limits to police powers are continually evaporating as restrictions and constraints on the individual increase.”
Interesting point. I’ve been seeing that trend a lot lately too. It’s nuts. What happened to checks and balances. This crap where fire fighters can enforce shit too that has nothing to do with them or their authority just proves your point, which is why we need to get rid of everyone of them, right down to the meter maid.