Ditch the MRAPs

What the deputy said on Dec. 7 (ironic that date) was indeed what law enforcement officers, public bureaucrats and civil services have been led to believe through federal training programs guided by the State Department, DHS and FBI under the guise of “Emergency Management.”

The sheriff in trying to justify the need for, let alone the use of a Mine Resistant Armored Personnel carrier in “situations like school shootings” is tantamount to ineptitude at best and a gross misuse of resources at worst. Not sure if you have been to a school, but you can’t get an MRAP through the front doors, past security guards and metal detectors.

Let’s keep military gear with the military or melt it down into razor blades. As a veteran of foreign wars, I have been to countries where the distinction between the military and local police is transparent. It is not a good situation for the freedoms and liberty of the people.

If the feds are passing out free military gear, it is out of a sense of fear of its citizens and, as they see it, a need to militarize local law enforcement to control the populace. Citizens beware.

Bruce Becherini

Spokane