Remember when the domestic police force were considered separate from the standing military? Those days are gone. Today the domestic police are nothing more than a local army. In fact domestic police are even receiving old military equipment:
Coming soon to your local sheriff: 18-ton, armor-protected military fighting vehicles with gun turrets and bulletproof glass that were once the U.S. answer to roadside bombs during the Iraq war.
The hulking vehicles, built for about $500,000 each at the height of the war, are among the biggest pieces of equipment that the Defense Department is giving to law enforcement agencies under a national military surplus program.
At this rate local police departments will be receiving surplus M1 Abrams tanks. There is some good news though:
But the trucks have limits. They are too big to travel on some bridges and roads and have a tendency to be tippy on uneven ground. And then there’s some cost of retrofitting them for civilian use and fueling the 36,000-pound behemoths that get about 5 miles to the gallon.
Not only do these surplus machines cost a fortune to operate but they appear to be rather unstable on uneven terrain. In fact I would bet that one of these monstrosities would tip over pretty quickly if enough people ran up to one side and bang rocking it. A high center of gravity is a notoriously bad design feature in a military vehicle.