Armored Vehicles: Essential For Policing Or A Step Closer To The Police State?

By: Terry Wilson
pressfortruth.ca

As we all watch the events unfold in Ferguson Missouri. The main stream media has raised the question of over militarization in police forces, a question that alternative and independent media outlets have been asking about for more than a decade.

In the last decade we have seen the department of homeland security purchase a number of very large and menancing MRAP’s (mine resistant armored vehicles).

The DHS has not stopped there. It has since been reported that they have issued an open purchase order for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. (Estimated to be enough ammunition to wage war for 20 years).
The RCMP, Canada’s national police force has also purchased 16 International® MXT™ Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs). This APC has been used by several army’s around the world.

The RCMP claims that the vehicles are for high risk situations, giving examples of using them to communicate with a suicidal person in British Columbia. What they do not speak about is their use in protest area’s, which we saw in New Brunswick.

As Ferguson has showed many, this is not only happening with federal law enforcement. Both large cities and small towns across North America are purchasing or being donated military equipment.

In 2012, police in Hamilton Ontario (population 520,000) purchased a GURKHA MPV armored vehicle, despite the tactical team being unable to “recall a single time that they had been shot at”. In what some people find to be an interesting fact, the very same Gurkha MPV was used in the 2013 Robocop film. A film that depicts a future where a corporate and state merger is attempting to create a robotic police state.

Then there is town of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. With a population of 9,562 most people would envision a typical rural community. With very little crime. But their police department and the department of national defense see things differently. In the spring of 2013, defense minister Peter MacKay personally “dropped off” a cougar armored vehicle.

The six wheeled cougar served in the Canadian military for nearly 30 years and was used for missions in Somalia and the Balkans.
With law enforcement recieving this type of equipment all across the board, we all must ask the question. Do the police departments truly need this military equipment to safely perform their jobs. Or is it another step towards a police state?
pressfortruth.ca