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UC Berkeley PD’s New Anti-Dissent Mobile

July 03
22:00 2012
Picture from Reclaim UC

Look at this big bastard. Covered in armor. With SHERIFF stamped on the side like God Almighty did the stencil work. Who the hell is the sheriff of Alameda County anyway? It doesn’t matter. Whoever he or she is, they don’t need a sluggish version of the bat mobile to deal with political dissidence at UC Berkeley. From Inter Press Service:

The University of California, Berkeley police department is using grant funds from the Department of Homeland Security to purchase a Lenco Ballistic Engineered Armoured Response Counter Attack Truck, better known as BearCat. The university will share the BearCat with police from Berkeley and the neighbouring city of Albany, where it will house the vehicle.

Some common sense?

These armoured vehicles are part of “an alarming increase in militarisation” of the police, said Norm Stamper, former Seattle police chief and author of Breaking Rank: A Top Cop’s Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing.
Stamper explained in a phone interview that, in addition to 9/11, the war on drugs has fuelled the drive toward police militarisation, exacerbating conflict between those targeted – people of color, youth and the poor – and law enforcement.
Once targeted, these communities become the enemy. “We start adding the military nomenclature and the military equipment and military tactics and strategies, and we find SWAT units hitting the house of somebody suspected of having half a bag of marijuana,” he said.

Just wait until that goddamned BearCat zips into your neighborhood accompanied by six spy drones. All because your neighbor is a mid-level blogger for an anti-capitalist website called Joseph McCarthy With A Spike Through His Heart.

Ka-Boom! The BearCat breaks down the house’s front wall, and the officers open fire from behind the gun ports situated within that black vehicle. The Bay Area can’t keep teachers connected with their jobs. UC Berkeley can’t keep their tuition below a couple hundred grand for a degree. As tensions flare, and society crumbles, I guess maybe the BearCat is the right investment for any police force.

If society continues to stick money into squashing the upcoming societal unrest, instead of pumping those dollars into fixing the problems that are going to cause the unrest, we might have streets that don’t need gorgeous black armored trucks and robocop police officers.

But ever since the Vietnam War, the idea was always about having heavenly streets of gold. Guarded by Marines.

SEE ALSO

The sneaking militarisation of police

North Dakota vs Texas: who will be the first to shoot down domestic spying drone?

Marine says no to killing American citizens

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