I don’t know whether it was pinched, licensed, or ‘inspired’; but the MRAP is a direct conceptual descendant of the Casspir(though, just as South Africa started building them based on the requirements of the South African Border War, the MRAP scope-creeped its way into domestic work).
Also, at least some of the MRAP designs have direct South African roots:the RG-33 and RG-31 are BAE Systems Land Systems South Africa products, and the Force Protection Inc. Cougar and Buffalo are South African designs.
After war weapons are broken down and destroyed and giving military weapons to civil organizations is stupid, will ultimately destroy the country, and unravel civil society. By the giving military weapons civil organizations the goal of the Pentagon is clear, militarize society. A militarized society doesn’t care about freedom, liberty, equality, real prosperity, and fraternity. A militarized society is only concerned with destroying an enemy, any enemy.
So that they can sit in the parking lot keeping track of who enters and leaves during the school day. We didn’t have police at my high school, just security guards, but that is one of the things they did.
Pretty sure a used Ford Econoline van would deliver teddy bears and emergency supplies just as well, and people could borrow it on the weekends to help them move or go to a band gig.
But the impact of all of the above is a lot smaller than people seem to be thinking. Worst case scenario is that this truck gets left to rust and eventually is sold as scrap, costing the school district some percentage of their $5000 investment. Of course, because this was an internal sale, the $5000 is in fact just shuffled into another part of government, so the real cost to the taxpayer is basically only the cost of fuel of moving this MRAP from one part of the country to another before scrapping it, instead of scrapping it in place.
I think it’s bleakly hilarious that anyone who mentions anything about the classification of armored vehicles here is likely to be attacked just as though they were actually supporting the idea of school districts owning armored vehicles.
But then again I’m developing an appreciation for dark absurdities this week.
It’s because it’s a) utterly predictable that it’ll come up because it always does and never serves any purpose, and b) it appears that you are derailing the discussion by arguing about semantics (yeah yeah, journalism standards etc etc).
That said, there really isn’t any other discussion to be had here, unless someone wants to start comparing San Diego to Israel (or Utah, perhaps). Is there anyone who doesn’t think a school police force (WTF, a school police force?) owning this thing is fucking stupid, whatever it’s called?
Me too! Let’s all go in together and buy a town, then apply to the program. Sure the initial investment of $400k is steep, but then we could get all kinds of gear for almost nothing - MRAPs, drones, body armor, grenade launchers…heck, some towns even get helicopters and real planes! Together we could make the safest city in America!
I’m off to kickstarter now to raise some money. Are you in? Anyone who supports me gets a free “my other car is an MRAP” t-shirt. Top level supporters get “Deputy Mayor” titles and the keys to a military vehicle of their choice.
