Stuff like this gives me the chills.


Sheriff Lott's New Toy
September 1, 2008



The Richland County, South Carolina Sheriff's Department (that's them above) just obtained an armored personnel carrier, complete with a belt-fed, .50-cal turreted machine gun. Sheriff Leon Lott has charmingly named the vehicle "The Peacemaker," and insists that using a caliber of ammunition that even the U.S. military is reluctant to use against human targets (it's generally reserved for use against armored vehicles) will "save lives."

Can we call this overkill, yet? Is there any weapon people like Sheriff Lott would consider inappropriate for use against American citizens?

Like most of these military toys obtained by local police departments, the Peacemaker will inevitably be used on drug and gambling raids—that is, to enforce laws against consensual activities. Or, as we're now seeing in Minnesota, perhaps on raids against leftist political activists.

Can't be too careful, you know.

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/128482

You mean local governments actually can be as oppressive as the federal government?

Hi Mel, where you been?

"Food riot in progress, proceed with plan alpha, eliminate anything moving."

"All they want is food for God's sake!"

"You have your orders"

Unemployed for about seven months.

Just landed a job now, though. Medical will start in about three weeks; I really need to take this body to the doctor, it needs some fixing.

Glad you got something. It's a miserable situation out there.

Wow, yeah, that is a heavy piece of kit, well, maybe it will be useful for certain applicatinos, although it is probably just a silly expense, if they were planning a big raid they would have the time to recruit militaty assistance if they really wanted.

And its good to hear you have a job Melliferal! well done

Cleveland, OH had APC's that I know of back in the 1980s as well as an armored assault vehicle that looked like a tank, though the main gun barrel had a 18" square piece of steel plate welded flat to it. The cops used the armored assault vehicle to break down front doors after shots had been fired at the officers. I saw the thing in use against a drug house at East 105th St and Cedar back in 1990. The front door had heavy security deadbolts on all sides and it took the armored assault vehicle 3 tries to smash the entire front of the first floor of the house out. Unfortunately by then, the bad guys got away through a tunnel to a garage down the alley. But that drug house was no more after that.

Back in 1974 the Ft. Lauderdale PD had an APC with rubber tires and heavy chain-mail hanging down along the sides to protect the tires. They used it in the New Year's Eve riot to fire tear gas and to bring in reinforcements. The bars let-out and then the crowd got surly for some reason. It was great fun for my friends and I while it lasted, though the tear gas was an experience all by itself.

Pretty soon every small PD will need APC's and tanks too. In the Detroit race riot in 1967 a tank blew the entire top floor off of an apartment building because there was a sniper on the roof. There was a 24-hour curfew at the time, and 11 residents of the building were killed or injured just so that the National Guard could take-out one sniper.

You got a job in Cleveland??? That is great. My last job there was a truckline on East 79th St and Garden Valley, south of Kinsman, in 1990. I used to own a house over near Pearl and Biddulph, near Rhodes High School, which I sold in 1991.

Cleveland had it's own riot in Hough in 1966, over by old League Park, where the Indians used to play. (East 65th & Lexington). I've even seen the National Guard cleaning-up the Garden Valley housing projects back in 1990 too. Imagine having a dozen Humvees and a dozen deuce & 1/2s showing up and a couple hundred soldiers dressed in green camo armed with automatic weapons running through the apartments chasing the dealers. I saw it happen driving a semi by East 79th and Kinsman one day in the Summer of 1990.

So Richland County, SC is just catching-up.

Mark

Alan,

Is not all crime censual activity.
I fired a 50m cal mounted on a m-60 tank back in 1981 on the island of Tinia. Is firing a 50 cal into a crackhouse a censual activity?
I like to have one of those things for driving to work. Want to cut me off eh? I'll blow you into the surrounding counties in a heartbeat!
Maybe all Hiway patrol departments should have them.
" Want to speed we will make you bleed" could be there motto.

ps. Good thing you live in Colorado and not S.C.

Mike

I am trying really really hard, knowing i am out-numbered here, to resist the temptation of saying "Americans" in that funnily disapproving way and shake my head lol.

What was that speach by whats his name? a car in every garage and chicken in every pot? i think it needs a modern-day re-working, a tank in every police station and gun collection in every basement. (i'm only messing with you)

Lewis,

Here in Ca. I am not allowed to buy a AKA-47 and i would love to have one. But life is not fair. So I guess i have to settle on owning my shot gun.

Mike