Dude, Bad Timing. Really Bad Timing.
The sheriff in my county is not a brilliant man. He’s a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, where I think class attendance is probably not mandatory.
He has openly called our President “that clown in Washington,” and was fired by a local police department for “repeated violations of policies and procedures.” Real winner, this one.
Here’s some bad timing. On Wednesday the news broke that he wants a couple of army helicopters and an armored personal vehicle. Wednesday. You know what was happening on Wednesday? In Ferguson, Missouri?
Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls joins the national trend in militarizing the local law enforcement agency with weapons of war.
YeeeHaw!
If you live local, call your county commissioner. They have to approve it. Don’t let them.
Bad timing is right. There’s a bill in Congress to “demilitarize” local police and ban the Pentagon from giving items designed for war to police departments. Talk about being behind the eight ball. Sheesh!
1The dumber they are, the more big toys they want (and want the taxpayers to pay for).
2Wow I’ve heard Fort Bend County was well-heeled but this astounds me.
Of course a surplused UH-1x, for example, is likely to be a hangar queen and cost thousands of dollars an hour to fly, assuming by some miracle it ever gets airworthy again.
Likewise a surplussed apc would be of the same high mechanical quality.
I say again if you just want to dispose of excess funds, send them to Matthew 25, Episcopal Charities, Baptist Men. Any thing or anybody aside from using the funding stupidly.
3i remember when sherif andy wouldn’t let barney load his gun
4OK. They can have the stuff if they paint it hot PINK.
Or yellow.
5Funny you should mention that, Frank . . .
6http://luckovich.blog.ajc.com/2014/08/14/815-luckovich-cartoon-crowd-control/
Remember the SWAT Commander on Hill Street Blues? Just a bit ahead of his time, it appears. I always thought the character was added for comic relief in a fairly heavy drama. I was wrong. That’s the way SWAT Commanders think.
7How the hell was his dismissal overlooked prior to his election? Or was I asleep at the wheel?
8WC,
I think of that crazy character SWAT leader every single time I hear SWAT.
Hill Street Blues was way ahead of its time.
9The militarizing of the police forces is the logical conclusion to the “2nd Amendment Right” folks. You allow the citizens to get tactical weapons and the police force has to keep up. Ergo the local “arms race” in your fair city.
10Does that picture remind anyone else of …..what is it…..oh yeah…..one of the Lollypop Guild members……does he have the munchkin voice?
11This dude shouldn’t have firearms permit, let alone a badge.
12Admittedly I’m a sci-fi geek, but love this quote from a fictional military commander:
“There’s a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.”
13— Commander William Adama, in Battlestar Galactica, in “Water” (episode 2 season 1)
Yesus H. Christ.
14Sorry about the outburst. Been reading a lot about a place called Ferguson, Missouri. Makes my head hurt.
Since I don’t expect Al Queada (?) to come marching down I-59 anytime soon…..
I suspect this is simply a case of: “You can separate the men and the boys….. by the price of their toys.”
He has seen on the teevee machine lately where other small communities have these war machine toys….. he wants his share….. not because he needs them…… but because he wants them…. Because……. all of Ft. Bend County….. is not old white guys. I guess…….. who knows the thinking behind this kind of crap?
15Keeping up with the Ferguson’s.
16If you want to play war, go join the army.
Now from a fiscal perspective, does he realize how expensive it is to maintain a helicopter much less two? Does anyone remember HPD toying with getting rid of theirs because of costs?
And what does one need with an armored carrier? To cut down on cow tipping? Goad dressing (see gay rodeo) or rowdy country dances??
17I want a helicopter too, plus a credit card for unlimited gallons of gasoline and tuneups and someone to maintain it, all costs prepaid. Just think of all the traffic I could avoid. I could give free rides to neighbor kids on their birthdays and take older folks than me shopping for groceries. Does HEB have a helipad?
18I’m with you, Micr.
It’s ironic that many of the people who depend on the Second Amendment to protect them from a tyrannical government have rendered that amendment moot by arming the government to the point that no amount of civilian resistance could overcome its brute force. When you look at the pictures from Ferguson, you realize how powerless we are. Good job, war on drugs righties. Now go see how many other of our constitutional rights you can give away because you don’t understand the concept.
19If they can afford to own and operate that kind of stuff, even if they are given the toys rather than buying them, all law departments can danged well afford those video cameras that go on a feller’s uniform
20I strongly suspect that attendance at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University is probably mandatory so they can learn all the wrong stuff so beloved of the right wing. No one could be that ignorant without making a real effort.
21As mentioned before, the people only look powerless sometimes–a few white guys with guns can make law enforcement go away (protecting a criminal’s right to run his cattle on public land without paying the lease or sticking to the landowner’s–our–rules), but a black kid without a gun can make law enforcement shoot to kill.
22Dear Fort Bend Commissioners Court,
If you allow our sheriff to pull this latest stunt over on you I can PROMISE it will be reflected at the ballot box next time you are individually up!
There is simply no way in HADES anyone can justify two worn out helicopters and an armored vehicle be put on the backs of Fort Bend Taxpayers. There still ain’t nothing that comes free that stays free. STOP IT NOW WHILE YOU CAN!
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