Small Iowa Town Police Obtain $733,000, 49,000-pound, Armored Vehicle for Free!

[Genx87]

To be fair, 700k is a steal for that vehicle.




I'm not sure what they'll do with it tho. Perhaps use it as the base for a parade float.

Im sure they can find some destructive use for it. Iowa is farm country, farm country is meth country. Time to break down houses on a few drug raids with this thing in the name of Freedumb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Genx87]

If it won't be used in war, would you rather sell it to a foreign country or find a use for it domestically?

I'd sell it or melt it down. Finding a use domestically means putting citizens in harms way.

 

[Brainonska511]

You assume that they ever were or will be "needed". They were pure pork all along, ladled out with maudlin hand wringing over "Protecting the Troops!"

You're so full of shit. The MRAPs reduced causaulty rates by 90%+ relative to the rates when they were using HMMWVs. It's amazing that it took so long for the Pentagon to actually deploy them in a war zone.

I don't think storing them would be that useful. The MRAPs used in Iraq were known to have poor mountain terrain performance and a new design was used in Afghanistan.

 

[NoCreativity]

It will be used for parades. In other words it won't get enough use to be any burden at all would be my guess. I wouldn't think the town could sell it. We don't want drug dealers tearing around town in one of these.

I don't agree with militarizing our police forces at all. Not one bit. But unlike another other poster here, I understand that the military bought it a long time ago. They could now scrap it or give it away. They chose to give it away. The town could have said no.

Your guess would be wrong. These things are maintenance intensive. Why do you think they are giving them away for free? Even if they just sit around unused waiting for the next conflict there is still maintenance that has to be preformed if you want it to run when needed.

I think giving them to police is stupid. They need to try and sell them to other countries that have a use for them (assuming they haven't already tried that).

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Yet another comedic relief thread. Thanks for the laughs.

 

[pauldun170]

This is awesome.
Lot of Vets on Police forces.
Many went straight from High School to Iraq\Afghanistan and then into the police force.

Spend 4-8 years on base with your "brother" fighting against "those animals" to spending 25 years in a police station with you "brothers" fighting against "those animals"

Change the color of the uniform, change the key words from "enemy combatant" to "suspect" and now they get the same equipment from overseas.
Just in a different color.

Really makes the job of "us vs them" much easier. Benefits package is awesome too.

 

[Vaux]

It's an MRAP. MINE RESISTANT ARMOR PROTECTED vehicle. How many mines, IEDs, and RPGs do you think it will save these small town cops from?


Yes it can block bullets from the once in a decade standoff w/ a guy with an ak, but so can even the most basically armored civilian vehicle.


It's a huge waste of money. They would do well to bolt a scoop from a front-end loader and use it to push whatever they need pushed.

Dude it was FREE. I know what an MRAP is. Do they need a mine resistant vehicle? Probably not. If they were purchasing one, do you think that is what they would get? Probably not. But if a small town gets a chance to own an armored vehicle that usually only major police forces are able to afford, oh and for free, even though it may be excessive, they took it. I don't see a problem with it.

 

[Newell Steamer]

,.. it's not the same unless Oldgamer is froathing at the mouth and demanding we get totally uncorruptable police serving us.

{:*-(

 

[Exterous]

If it won't be used in war, would you rather sell it to a foreign country or find a use for it domestically?

I would think they could just store it in the desert. I mean if it works for planes and thousands of tanks the government makes the army keep buying but doesn't need surely it could work for a bunch of MRAPs too

Dude it was FREE. I know what an MRAP is. Do they need a mine resistant vehicle? Probably not. If they were purchasing one, do you think that is what they would get? Probably not. But if a small town gets a chance to own an armored vehicle that usually only major police forces are able to afford, oh and for free, even though it may be excessive, they took it. I don't see a problem with it.

So....uh...do you think the gas, parts and maintenance is free too? Or think that the cost to fuel, repair, maintain a military vehicle is cheap?

 

[Vaux]

Gas, parts, and maintenance is the price of doing business. How many miles do you think they plan on putting on this? Do you think it will be patrolling the town, pulling people over or something?

Just about all of its life with this PD will be sitting in a lot and used in a as needed basis. The cost to keep it alive will be minimal. And when they are done with it perhaps they can sell it and recoup costs.

Still don't see a problem.

 

[Exterous]

Gas, parts, and maintenance is the price of doing business. How many miles do you think they plan on putting on this? Do you think it will be patrolling the town, pulling people over or something?

Just about all of its life with this PD will be sitting in a lot and used in a as needed basis. The cost to keep it alive will be minimal. And when they are done with it perhaps they can sell it and recoup costs.

Do you think this is some sort of vehicle that requires piddly amounts of maintenance that anyone can do? What grease monkey knows how to replace the mil-spec door assist actuators that open the door? (If that doesn't work your door doesn't open.). I am sure the monopolistic supplier will cut you a deal on parts given that you can't go anywhere else for it. You probably can't even ask the other police station that got one because there are so many variants built by different companies. I am sure that the long history of rushed vehicles and maintenance problems will magically disappear once these are delivered to the police.

The MRAP has moving parts that need to be used frequently to maintain working condition. Just sitting in the garage isn't going to work without significant mothballing time and cost. It actually needs to be used. And your mechanic needs to be trained to work on it - if they will even let you. I know for a while the army was required to use contractors to work on them. If they do let you work on it you still need a lot of training - 12 days worth for those already familiar and working on military vehicles. So when you need an oil change do the police departments have to fly someone out there? Or did they fly them to a training center? There are only a small number of places you can go to learn how to work on an MRAP. You can't just drain the oil and replace the filter. Heck - the filter has five different parts alone

And who is paying for the retrofit? In most cases the vehicle is free but the department still has to pay for the retrofit which is in the $50,000-70,000 range

 

[OutHouse]

Do they need it? Well it depends I guess. A vehicle like that can provide a tactical advantage in a shooter situation that no other police vehicle can provide. You are aware that the American population have access to high powered rifles, right? With all of these mass shooting incidents happening lately, is it really surprising that the police want to have a armored vehicle?

Off the top of my head, here is a situation that an armored vehicle like that came in handy:

Long story short, Richard Poplawski ambushed and killed 3 responding Pittsburgh police officers from his home with an AK-47 and 3 other weapons. Police were able to drive their armored vehicle right up to his house and sit on his front lawn and see inside his house and communicate with no risk of being shot with any weapons.

an armored truck the type used by wells fargo and other money carries would have done the same job.

 

[unokitty]

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . --General Eisenhower

Every hour a small town warrior cop spends training is a theft of an hour from law enforcement. Every dollar spent maintaining an armored vehicle is a dollar stolen from the town's citizens.

Small towns in Iowa need law enforcement. Training police on the maintenance and use of armored vehicles steals resources from law enforcement.

Law enforcement is not war.

Police are not soldiers.

Uno

 

[BoomerD]

You're so full of shit. The MRAPs reduced causaulty rates by 90%+ relative to the rates when they were using HMMWVs. It's amazing that it took so long for the Pentagon to actually deploy them in a war zone.

I don't think storing them would be that useful. The MRAPs used in Iraq were known to have poor mountain terrain performance and a new design was used in Afghanistan.

you go to war with the army you have---not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.---You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up...
Donald Rumsfeld

http://crooksandliars.com/2006/12/1...ou-might-want-or-wish-to-have-at-a-later-time

 

[Newell Steamer]

Police are not soldiers.

Well,... you CLEARLY have not seen The Last Stand; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1549920/

What will that town do when the Mexican drug cartel rolls by and they need to be stopped?

You think Forest Whitaker will show up and save the day? Huh? Well, just watch the movie and THEN get back to us.

If we can stop Iraq from using weapons of mass destruction, that may or may not have existed, on us,.. then we need to stop out of the way and implausible threats as well.

 

[werepossum]

Well,... you CLEARLY have not seen The Last Stand; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1549920/

What will that town do when the Mexican drug cartel rolls by and they need to be stopped?

You think Forest Whitaker will show up and save the day? Huh? Well, just watch the movie and THEN get back to us.

If we can stop Iraq from using weapons of mass destruction, that may or may not have existed, on us,.. then we need to stop out of the way and implausible threats as well.

Forest Whitaker, probably not. Samuel L. Jackson, maybe.

 

[Genx87]

Well,... you CLEARLY have not seen The Last Stand; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1549920/

What will that town do when the Mexican drug cartel rolls by and they need to be stopped?

You think Forest Whitaker will show up and save the day? Huh? Well, just watch the movie and THEN get back to us.

If we can stop Iraq from using weapons of mass destruction, that may or may not have existed, on us,.. then we need to stop out of the way and implausible threats as well.

lmfao using the "what will you do when you need us" argument? Just like the gun grabbers. You let movies influence your view of reality.

 

[Zargon]

an armored truck the type used by wells fargo and other money carries would have done the same job.

those are not cheap and are very maintenance intensive as well

 

[OutHouse]

My comment had nothing to do with the vehicle dumbass!

wtf? so stop posting in the thread dipshit.

 

[Newell Steamer]

lmfao using the "what will you do when you need us" argument? Just like the gun grabbers. You let movies influence your view of reality.

I was mocking the gun-grabbers.

 

[ivwshane]

wtf? so stop posting in the thread dipshit.

Lol! Holy shit you dumb fucks are stupid! Had you quoted my whole post you would have realized I responded and agreed to the quote the OP posted in the original post. Did you read his post or did you just look at the pretty pictures?

Do you dumb asses understand how a message board works?

If you fucking morons would stop acting like morons I wouldn't have to treat you as such

 

[Londo_Jowo]

This thread had reached comedy gold status.

My daughter (heavy diesel mechanic) worked on MRAPs the last 18 months of her service in the Army and she said those who think the MRAPS require tons of maintenance and are hard to work on are making statements based on pure ignorance. She said that those being used in mild police service would be a dream to work on compared to those used in combat/rough terrain conditions.

 

[boomerang]

This thread had reached comedy gold status.

My daughter (heavy diesel mechanic) worked on MRAPs the last 18 months of her service in the Army and she said those who think the MRAPS require tons of maintenance and are hard to work on are making statements based on pure ignorance. She said that those being used in mild police service would be a dream to work on compared to those used in combat/rough terrain conditions.

Which affirms my assumption earlier in the thread. These things are built for extremely severe conditions. Using them for a weekly donut run won't tax them in any measurable way.

 

[Brainonska511]

http://crooksandliars.com/2006/12/1...ou-might-want-or-wish-to-have-at-a-later-time

That is true. As Robert Gates put it, the big problem was the lackadaisical way people in the Pentagon was acting when it came to getting important equipment out to troops. The requisitioning process was moving very much like it would in peacetime instead of the accelerated process that should have been in place during war. There were several in service as early as 2004, yet there was little push to further procure and deploy more until Gates took over as Secretary of Defense.

 

[Bitek]

This thread had reached comedy gold status.

My daughter (heavy diesel mechanic) worked on MRAPs the last 18 months of her service in the Army and she said those who think the MRAPS require tons of maintenance and are hard to work on are making statements based on pure ignorance. She said that those being used in mild police service would be a dream to work on compared to those used in combat/rough terrain conditions.

So if it's not going to be used for its intended purpose, will see very little use, mostly sit in a garage, why is it needed? Free to buy is not free to own. Why should taxpayers pay even a dollar more this over an alternative?

What is this doing that a Tahoe, or even armored car can't do?