Davis County, CA Council members could set a trend after they listened to the public and ordered the police to find a way of getting rid of the department’s newly acquired Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle.
The City Council held an open meeting to listen to public concerns about the MRAP and then adopted a resolution demanding the Police deliver a plan to get rid of the offending vehicle.
One man was quotes as saying:
“I would like to say I do not suggest you take this vehicle and send it out of Davis, I demand it.”
The few in favor of keeping the MRAP did their best to come up with legitimate uses for the vehicle. One of the suggested uses:
“Since you can’t give it back it should be repurposed, you can put a water cannon on it.”
YOU, the reader, should allow that statement to sink in. The best legitimate use offered was to outfit the vehicle with the same equipment used to deny equal rights during the 1960s. The cannons were used for the same reason in South Africa in the 1980s. Water cannons are typically used in totalitarian countries to disperse the huddled masses who are clamoring for freedom in some form of nonviolent protest. This is the best use of the vehicle.
Echoing statements by Police Chiefs and Sheriffs across the country who obtain the military vehicles, Police Chief Landry Black indicated that the MRAP would only be used in certain situations, though it is unclear how exactly the department would have deployed the controversial vehicle. The only vote in favor of keeping the vehicle in the Police Department’s arsenal came from Councilman Brett D. Lee.
One could hope that this is the start of a national trend that seeks to curtail law enforcement’s continuing overreach and militarization. MRAPs were deployed in Ferguson to intimidate protesters who police believed should “have been put down like a rabid dog the first night.”
