update, 10.22.2013. this is just how it works. the homeland security department ladles out slop.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/22/local-cops-really-excited-about-their-terrifying-new-tank/ . hat tip, mike d. go ducks!!
the local cop shop gets a new toy. everybody is beholden. st. cloud paid $3,000 shipping for a $400,000 truck, called a tank by a credulous reporter. now, when homeland security calls for a favor, don't you think that the st. cloud cops "owe them a $400,000 favor. you can bet homeland security thinks about it that way.
please note: this tank has a grill. for a radiator. and, note as well, it has the gun mount affixed to the top, complete w/ screens to try and protect the "gunner." that means it also has a hole in the top, through which the gunner must pass.
end update.
update no. 2, 10.27.2013. from "stars and stripes," an article about the culpepper county, virginia sheriff whose department has been "gifted" an armored truck for "police functions." http://www.stripes.com/news/us/va-county-police-get-armored-vehicle-to-secure-their-safety-1.249031 .
i shall contact both authors of the above articles, and try to see if they have looked at the paper work conferring "title" on the subject vehicles."
the government just slops the swills onto gloriously happy recipients of the same, who have no regard for the "costs" involved, in my estimation.
p.s. culpepper country also got $200,000 worth of night vision goggles from the same grant. interesting, eh?
end update no. 2.
now, i am going to show you a picture of something which should chill you to the bone. it will not. as a matter of fact, it may not seem to be of much significance to you at all, upon first blush, and perhaps even upon second blush. or, even after you have lent the matter your considered thought and analysis.
but, the picture below scares me shitless, you should pardon the expression.
the picture. ---
caption: in the foreground, gravel being spread in preparation for pouring a concrete parking lot. in the middle ground, a concrete foundation and slab for a "mystery" building, which everyone thought was part of the milton freewater, oregon national guard detachment, but, which probably is not. and, in the background, right behind the orange forklift, a rather nondescript metal shed which for years served as a garage for the national guard unit's vehicles.
what is scary about that picture?
well, it is not the concrete foundation/slab in the middle ground. we know, more or less convincingly, that it will be a garage facility, and probably repair shop, for some sort of fairly heavy armored vehicle(s), most probably the mrap's acquired by homeland security from the u.s. army. (the fact is, that in military service, they proved less than stellar, and the military probably quite rightly wanted rid of them.)
no, i will tell you what is scary in the picture above.
it is that the parking area being prepped for a concrete pad and likely paving, runs from the front of the armored car shed to the front of humvee shed, and is contiguous and continuous.
in short, the facilities are to have a shared use, and a shared access. that is the truly chilling thing.
oh, mr. jay, but you do go on. whatever is the burr under your saddle?
well, i will tell you.
on 05.23.2011 the "oregon military department" issued a press release announcing that the milton freewater, oregon national guard amory was in for renovation and repair, improvements to include upgrading the heating and cooling systems, and improving and bringing up to current code other utilities. http://www.oregon.gov/omd/pages/pressrelease/2011/05-23-11press.aspx
if you will look to the text of that press release you will kindly note that no mention at all was made for the construction of a garage for the housing of armored vehicles, to include armored personnel carriers and the like. no mention was made of the acquisition of weapons for such weapons systems and/or allied vehicles. nor was any mention made that the national guard unit would take on operational control of such vehicles and weapons systems. http://wintersoldier2008.typepad.com/summer_patriot_winter_sol/2013/10/press-release-from-oregon-national-guard-announcing-remodel-of-the-milton-freewater-armory-no-mentio.html .
i thought, and think, this highly anonymous anomalous. especially given the fact, that the concrete foundation and slab pictured above is adjacent to the to the oregon national guard's equipment shed, and that it is immediately adjacent to the armory, which is under renovation right next door.
that got me to thinking. what if this heavy duty equipment garage does not in fact belong to the oregon national guard? who might it belong to?
update no. 3, 10.28.2013. i came across this a moment or two ago. one of the first pictures of a dhs armored car to hit the blogs. dhs still denied them, at that time. http://www.examiner.com/article/dhs-deploying-homeland-with-weapons-of-war . this mrap is being driven around, in the open, with department of homeland security on its flanks, along with a small american flag.
captions: one of the first of the mraps owned by the department of homeland security, getting fuel at a public station, in el paso, texas. the fellow with the arm patch is identified as the blog post above as being a homeland security investigator.
i know from my experience doing accident investigations, that people really want to confide in you, when you pull up in a vehicle like that, ... , it just creates an atmosphere of trust, when you drive up in an armored vehicle. oh, yeah.
end update no. 3.
immediately suspect in my mind, for obvious reason, was the homeland security department of the united states federal government. so, i googled "homeland security" and "milton freewater armory," on the same inquiry, and i got a hit.
i have not substantiated it entirely, not just yet, but i think that the answer lies in some budgetary documents, in pdf form, published by the state of oregon. (hidden in these very lengthy pdf's, somewhere, http://www.lanecounty.org/departments/sheriff/documents/2013%20oregon_hidta_threat_assessment_final_062112.pdf (my post, regarding the documents, and here, http://www.ous.edu/sites/default/files/dept/budget/files/2013-15_ARB.pdf)
(my post on same, here, http://wintersoldier2008.typepad.com/summer_patriot_winter_sol/2013/10/homeland-security-oregon-state-police-milton-freewater-national-guard-armory-240000-american-.html.)
these documents, or at least the google entries to the same, suggest very strongly that the oregon state government, acting by and through several of its agencies, principally the oregon state police department, has secured money from the homeland security department to construct the "super garage" on property adjacent to the armory. and, to put things, in it.
given any reasonable and cogent analysis of the physical facts and context of the matter, that the "super garage" is going to house and service heavy armored vehicles, the leading candidate being the mrap armored personnel carrier heavy trucks which homeland security has acquired from the united states army as surplus items.
well, o.k.
so what?
the "so what" lies in the proximity of all the facilities. physically, legally, institutionally, and in terms of real world use. this unholy alliance between homeland security shoveling out the gifts and state institutions using them blurs the distinctions between governments, and makes the states unduly subservient to the interests of the federal government.
this proximity implies shared access to any facility, and any vehicles and weapons and ammo stored within that facility. it suggests that the national guard, for instance, might have access to the homeland security/state patrol vehicle if it needs it "in a pinch."
that is disturbing enough.
what is very troubling, however, is that the state patrol/homeland security types who probably have nominal ownership in the vehicle(s) and its/their stores, also has potential ready access to the national guard personnel who "reside" right next door to their facility and the toys therein.
so, if the state police and the county sheriff fire up one of these fancy mobile coffins to go do a drug raid or interdiction, there exist in that situation a powerful impetus to "borrow" some national guard types to lend support. and, what if the local police agencies decide that it would be a smart move to hire some of the local national guard types as reserve deputies at the local county or municipal jails, and/or to make such personnel part of their reserve police officer cadres.
send the national guard types off to the state police training academies, get them certified as civilian police officers, and take advantage of the skills they have acquired in military service. i know of nothing that would prevent an active national guard soldier from acquiring such training and certification, and being so employed.
hey, it's a free country? right?
those types of scenarios are disquieting enough. their is an incestuous aspect about all that, at the "personnel level," which raises very serious issues.
but, it is at the higher levels of government, as being agencies of the federal government and the state government, that the issues raised by all of this become terribly troubling, and raise serious issues about the ability of democratic systems to resist & withstand attempts to unified control over all levels of government, in our still yet federal system. (does anybody ever think about what that term means, historically & politically?)
homeland security simply has become, in my estimation, a very thinly veiled attempt for the federal government to achieve over-weaning influence over state police and military functions, e.g., the state police & the state national guard units, in a way that defeats all of the political and social controls we have had in place to prevent, ... , well, dictatorship.
this business of homeland security dispensing money, toys, equipment, largess and status like a runaway santa with an unlimited budget, means that those legal and institutional barriers to tyranny are disappearing very quickly under the relentless tide of spoils gushing forth from the federal weal. grown up boys do like their toys, and become rather slavish to them, and the givers of same.
i have serious misgivings, for instance, that any person running the oregon national guard or the oregon state police could resist a call from obama, wanting a little favor here, or a little favor there, given the money, largess and status which is being dispensed by obama and minions. who could resist the fear of loosing a spot on the gravy train?
and, i fear that our rights and liberties simply will be crushed under the weight of money, greed and influence that throwing these sums, this equipment, and the conferral of "power" this level of bureaucratic "interface" represents. remember, another term for "interface" is "intercourse," and it is a useful metaphor to keep in mind.
i live in milton freewater, oregon. just about off the end of the beaten track.
yet, my little town has a stimulus garage going up for a stimulus armored personnel carrier, right next door to a stimulus renovated national guard armory. (the town to the north, walla walla, washington has a police force that has received fully automatic rifles, m-16s, given to them by homeland security to carry in their patrol cars? well, who's your daddy? who's santa at christmas? who do you serve, the public that doesn't treat you so well, or the federal bureaucrat that treats you so swell? who's your daddy, indeed?)
what if i get a stimulus knock on the door, say 3.30 this morning, with a stimulus billy club wielded by an oregon state trooper, accompanied by a reserve deputy member of the local national guard, w/ a stimulus mrap parked out in my front yard, driven by a stimulated national guard fellow in uniform, covered by a stimulus & stimulated national guard detachment providing infantry support.
far fetched?
as far fetched as a super garage going up next to an armory under renovation, all cheek to jowl.
and, the front doors to all the facilities, connected by one common parking lot. all built and complete, before anyone had the slightest idea what was going on.
but, wait.
the above rhetorical flourish brings on last thing up. and, it is equally disquieting.
all the local authorities, including the local cop shops, the oregon state patrol, the county sheriffs, and the national guard types have known about this for several years now. there has not been boo! peep! or squeak! out of any of them, and they supposedly live "in" our community. their quiet suggests to me, that perhaps they view themselves as not living "in" our community, but "above" it, and thoroughly in "control" of it.
so, when and if they come to my door, there is only one response that can be given with a love of liberty and right. just one.
do we have neighbors anymore, who just happen to be cops or national guard members? or, do we live among goons and thugs paid for by dirty money? it is a question that must be asked.
can any person wearing a uniform of any stripe be trusted, or, like every sheriff under the employ of nottingham, are they to be considered the enemy?
john jay @ 10.18.2013
"can any person wearing a uniform of any stripe be trusted, or, like every sheriff under the employ of nottingham, are they to be considered the enemy?"
The long and short, as the growing evidence has been rubbed into our noses, is-
NO.
YES.
Posted by: rightwingterrorist | October 19, 2013 at 06:37 AM
Dustin Theoharis shot 16 times by Kings Cty. Deputy and Washington State Correction Officer in error. Just one of many.
And they are now giving them MRAPS and full auto M16s!
Posted by: Pappy Van Winkle | October 20, 2013 at 01:51 PM
pappy:
lemme see. five or six guys on an "entry" team. ar-15's, now m-4's/m-16's, with 30 round clips.
say they only have a 50% hit ratio.-- the next guy they shoot by accident will have just around 90 bullet holes in him. 6 x's 30 x's 50% ='s 90.
sounds about right.
john jay
p.s. i worked w/ "swat" entry team guys. they like to shoot.
Posted by: john jay | October 20, 2013 at 02:33 PM
friends:
the following was sent to me by "uncle kenny," who has graciously given me his permission to reprint it here.--
"John, you have to learn to look at the positive side of these things. Firstly, DHS is kindly putting all their equipment and their vast ammunition stockpile in these well known locations right in the middle of a hotbed of patriots. Consider these future FOB locations for them, or consider them warehouses for you and yours. Secondly, because they are going to all this trouble (and wasting their time and treasure) on little rural you, that means they are not able to spend quite so much on places where real insurrection is likely to begin. Finally, the Romans never got North of Hadrian's wall. If they want to ring in the Wash/Or/Id/Mont redoubt with little forts, it means they are afraid of y'all. As they say, you are living in their heads for free.\
(Of course, the Romans eventually took Scotland, but it was the priests that did it, not the legions.)
/s/ uncle kenny"
uncle kenny makes some pretty good points. the "powers that wanna be" simply are not carrying themselves as though they are confident of prevailing.
john jay
Posted by: john jay | October 21, 2013 at 10:01 PM