The U.K. Guardian reports:
“The Ferguson police department officially has two Humvees on their books; the state coordinators provided the police department two more Humvees without following the proper transfer protocol,” Mark Wright, a spokesman for the Defense Department, said in a statement.
But this was denied by Missouri law enforcement officials, who in effect operate a warehouse for federal military equipment and act as broker between the Pentagon and municipalities in the state that are seeking it. The state officials said the Pentagon did give permission for Ferguson to have four Humvees before “losing the records” for two of them. Wright, the Pentagon spokesman, did not immediately respond to this claim.
The Guardian story is here.
Officials in Ferguson want to appeal the decision, but this was rejected by the Defense Department. “So we’re going to go down with a trailer and truck and get them on an expedited basis,” said Mike O’Connell, the communications director for the Missouri department of public safety, which acts as the go-between with the US government in the equipment transfer program.
Wright said the two additional Humvees may be assigned to another law enforcement agency in Missouri after being returned by Ferguson, probably some suburban community that won’t ever need them. He said Ferguson was not being terminated or suspended from the 1033 program and could make future applications, just like they did with these vehicles, probably with the same result. The city has 21,000 people with a police department of about 55 officers. Many critics question the need for an arsenal of military-style equipment. Apparently two Humvees constitute an arsenal.
Photo: Wally Gobetz on Flickr
Obama is a racist, pure and simple!
Typical, dumb down the cops, BS
Is that so