Take the 50-officer police department in Oxford, Alabama, a town of 20,000 people. It has stockpiled around $3 million of equipment, ranging from M-16s and helmet-mounted infrared goggles to its own armored vehicle, a Puma. In Tupelo, Mississippi, home to 35,000, the local police acquired a helicopter for only $7,500 through the surplus program. The chopper, however, had to be upgraded for $100,000 and it now costs $20,000 a year in maintenance.
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In Lebanon, Tennessee, a town of less than 30,000 people, Mike Justice, the public safety coordinator, was so eager to accumulate military goods that he used to wake up at 3:00 a.m. so he was the first person logged in at the government’s first-come, first-serve online store. Thanks to his sleepless nights, since 2007, Lebanon has collected $4 million worth of stuff, including tanks, weapons and heavy equipment like bulldozers and truck loaders. Lebanon’s tank, an LAV 150, has been used only “five or six times,” according to Justice. Although it did help save a man who tried to commit suicide, spotting him with the tank’s infrared camera.
Brian Terry's parents are finally getting a bit of a hearing; their words for Holder and Obama are not kind. This from the comments:
I think they got the departments confused... it's Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Smoke, and Mirrors.
1 comment:
Lebanon’s tank . . . did help save a man who tried to commit suicide, spotting him with the tank’s infrared camera.
Was this infrared "camera" (actually a sight) perhaps used to "glass" the neighborhood? This is an offense that if I were out hunting and I used my scope in such a manner, I would run the risk of a visit from a very annoyed fellow hunter along about dinner time.
Fortunately it was only a Rule 1 and a Rule 2 violation. The booger hook was not on the bang switch.
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