By MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
A Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle
The sheriff of Bastrop County, Texas, is a pretty happy man.
He just took possession of a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle for his police force. It’s a gift from the US military — paid for by taxpayers — part of a surplus giveaway program to police deparments.
Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Joey Dzienowki told the Austin Statesman, “I look at this as the fire department looks at a new fire truck.” Gee, I wonder when the kids can get a free ride on the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, July 4th? “When it’s not in use on calls, the county’s SWAT team will use the MRAP in training and the county may display it at various events for citizens to examine,” Dzienowki explained to the Statesman.
To be fair to Lt. Dzienowski, he also avows, “We’re not militarizing the department at all.” Given that law enforcement agencies in cities and hamlets alike across the land are being given such defense department surplus items, you can be sure that one of the goals of the program is indeed to blur the distinction between local police and the military. This was begun long ago, and was most visibly evident in the emergence of SWAT teams a few decades back.
The national militarized police crackdown on the Occupy Movement is an example of how military-law enforcement relations can lead to municipal police departments acting as surrogates for what would be a military crackdown in other nations.
Increasingly, through such vehicles as the Fusion Centers — created to “coordinate” law enforcement, military, and intelligence activity in the wake of 9/11 — are experiencing mission creep into suppression of dissent and protectors of the interests of the 1%.
The MRAP vehicle gifted to Bastrop County (just east of Austin), Texas, is basically just treated as a local news item. But just back up — like zooming out on a google map — and see the bigger picture.
In that larger frame, you see America’s fascination with violence, its empire military culture and expenditures on weapons, its Pentagon video recruitment games, its love affair with guns, and its growing glorification of the robo-cop merging together.
The end result is not a pretty picture for a free society that ostensibly values independent thinking and rights.
