Of all the things to spend tax money on I’m sure this is the most crucial:
The University of California – Berkeley Police Department (UCPD) has acquired a $200,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security to purchase an “Armored Response Counter Attack Truck,” a police department spokesman told Campus Reform on Friday.
The eight-ton vehicle, commonly referred to as a “Bearcat,” is used by U.S. troops on the battlefield and is often equipped with a rotating roof hatch, powered turrets, gun ports, a battering ram, and a weapon system used to remotely engage a target with lethal force.
It makes sense that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is now giving armored personell carriers to campus police forces. DHS has already fully militarized state and city police departments so now they have to move on to arming campus police departments. I wonder when Berkeley will get rockets launchers?
Wasn’t it Occupy LA that was calling for violence to implement what they wanted. I recall one of the speakers for them doing that, they seemed to assume that the police would be on their side if they did that. (Clearly a faulty assumption). So this could be a preemptive response before the lefties go crazy, or that would probably be the excuse the police use to justify it. I think it all comes down to they want more force just because they can, more power to them if they are a quasi-military force instead of traditional peace keepers. Unfortunately once departments have that kind of equipment they usually have to come up with excuses to use it, so bad news for the commie protestors in Berkley in the near future.