Mocking works! Saginaw sheriff dumping military vehicle made fun of by HBO comedy show

[n2doc]

SAGINAW, MI — The day after a national news show highlighted the Saginaw County Sheriff's Mine-Resistant Ambush Proof (MRAP) vehicle during coverage of citizen-police clashes in Ferguson, Missouri, Sheriff Bill Federspiel confirmed that plans had already been laid for the vehicle to leave the county for good.

The sheriff's 19-ton MRAP was shown during a Sunday, Aug. 17, segment of HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" entitled, "Ferguson, MO and Police Militarization." The host mentions Saginaw County's vehicle about 7:45 into the clip.

more with clip

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2014/08/saginaw_county_sheriff_getting.html

[KittyWampus]

1. Can we give credit to the authority who decided to scrap it? That he/she was even aware

of Oliver's show is kind of amazing. Maybe not. I don't know.

But, good for the sheriff. One less piece of equipment to be responsible for keeping up etc.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Proving Mel Brooks right once again....

"Rhetoric does not get you anywhere, because Hitler and Mussolini are just as good at rhetoric. But if you can bring these people down with comedy, they stand no chance."
Mel Brooks

[progressoid]

3. "plans had already been laid for the vehicle to leave the county"

riiiight.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

26. ...to head to another police department in another county, at a guess.

maybe even at a profit.

[Maynar]

33. This.

I see no plans to turn it into razorblades or an artificial reef, both preferable to just passing it on to some other unsuspecting district...

[KurtNYC]

4. Duuuuude !

[Mopar151]

5. Has anyone done a snowplow conversion to an MRAP?

Looks a lot like the AWD Internationals my cousin sells herds of here in NH.

[Xyzse]

7. You're RIGHT!

That would be an AMAZING Snow Plow.

[AngryAmish]

9. 3mpg

Not a typo. Can it be de-armored? I always wanted a unimog.

[Xyzse]

11. Unimog?

[ProdigalJunkMail]

12. o hell yes a unimog!

daddy want!



never get stuck again!

sP

[Xyzse]

14. Thanks!

[ProdigalJunkMail]

13. a deuce and a half would be good too...

sP

[AngryAmish]

24. the duece is more reasonable than an mrap

I have been thinking about this all day. everything in a mrap is armored. Thick tranny casing. Blast shields under. I shudder to think what the wheel bearings look like, probably the size of the Undertaker's fist. Every hose is probably half an inch thick, if not in cable armor like that flexible electrical wire.

My wife's cousin is an uppity up at Osh Kosh (and yes these mraps have bought him a very nice boat). I am gonna bend his ear about if a surplus one is worth getting. I suspect that it is more valuable scrapped than anything.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

35. oh, I was saying the 2 1/2 would be good like a Unimog would be good

i don't think i need the blast resistance of an MRAP... not too many ambushes or land mines where i would want to be driving around. i like them both... would take more customization on the deuce...

sP

[indigoth]

21. Pinzgaur

I've got a pinzgaur. On a bad day it get around 10 mpg. And it'll hit 70 on the freeway

[AngryAmish]

22. pics, please.

Is it a working vehicle? Or a camper?

[PersonNumber503602]

27. Well that's useful.

[Rex]

6. Why do you need a mine proof vehicle on American soil?

Just out and out getting ready for the serf uprising?

[Chan790]

28. The town I live in has one.

We actually have need of it though. We're a mountain-side-and-top heavily-forested village in the Lower Berkshires of CT. Mine-proof also means avalanche-proof and we do actually have some old-heads in town who still have dynamite in their garages.

It wouldn't be the first time some lonely 90 year old coot IEDed their driveway then engaged in an armed standoff to keep their kids from shipping them to "Pleasant Meadows." I don't get the fuss: lots of shuffleboard, equally-lonely people to date and community events. Sounds like Heaven, I can't wait to go. Just 30ish more years before I'm eligible.

More often it gets used for emergency rescue. It can go off-road, it can drive up a 45-deg. incline, it can take a 20' fall off a cliff, it goes over 4' boulders or through 2' of snow. It'll tow a fire-truck out of a snowbank or gully. It goes over or through full-grown trees. It makes its own road. It's really useful for wilderness search, we unfortunately have a lot of wilderness search. We have more under-documented or unused trail miles than any other village or administrative area in New England...which means we have more places to go wandering off and get lost in the words. (I'm an experienced tracker, hiker and orienteer; I sometimes get lost and I grew up in these woods & hike daily.) Normally you look and can fine them on foot or on quads or by air...but sometimes you need several tons of vehicle to gain access or evacuation or for search. Here is not where you want to be lost in the woods when the sun sets. Last night, it was 41'F in my backyard.

It's also handy for the rarish forest fire.

[Rex]

30. Never thought of it like that, thanks for that insight.

Strip the guns off and use it for all the things you just said...I can see that totally happening. We have a few tax evaders around here that would probably boobie trap the area they live in.

[Jackpine Radical]

29. Here's how the cops think--

Lewisburg, Tenn., a town of about 11,000 people, was the recipient of a MaxxPro, manufactured by Navistar Defense, last summer. Detective Sgt. David Henley said the vehicle has been a lifesaver for the town’s regional SWAT team, which is responsible for four counties.

“We had been on the list to get an armored vehicle for several years and got lucky when the MRAPs became available,” Henley said. “There’s no way we could have afforded a vehicle with this level of protection.”

The department has used the vehicle to serve warrants on potentially violent suspects, Henley said. Without it, an officer would have to approach a residence on foot or in a patrol car. The SWAT team has sporadic access to a Bearcat armored car that is stationed more than an hour away, he said.

“We were having to do it the old fashioned way and put a man in harm’s way to approach a situation,” Henley said. “It’s more about the intimidation factor than anything else. Someone looks out their window and sees that big ol’ MRAP sitting there … it changes their whole thought process pretty quickly.”

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2014/April/Pages/RepurposedMRAPsFindNewLifeinPoliceAgencies.aspx

[Flyboy_451]

32. Just something to think about

The vehicle has ARMOR. It is not ARMED. It's primary role is defensive in nature, not offensive. How is having a vehicle that will stop pretty much any weapon that is likely to be leveled at law enforcement a completely bad thing. Pretty much any handgun will penetrate the typical police car side panels and glass. Rifles will turn them and their occupants into Swiss cheese.

In standoff or active shooter situations, this type of vehicle is a safe haven for officers for both deployment and retreat, should it become necessary. I would also guess that acquiring these from the DOD is MUCH CHEAPER than having a couple of SUVs modified to provide similar protection. If my memory serves, a conversion of a Chevy Suburban to an armored vehicle capable of repelling medium to high powered rifle rounds is somewhere north of a quarter million dollars.

[corkhead]

8. one of the things that really pisses me off about this whole militarization of police forces

besides the threat it poses to the citizens they are supposedly here to "Serve and Protect" is how it is the republicons that are behind what is truly wasteful spending on shit like this.

What a bunch of fucking hypocrites.

[Initech]

18. I call it "The Shit Cycle".

Last edited Tue Aug 19, 2014, 07:42 PM - Edit history (1)

Step 1: The republicans scare the populace into voting against their best interests.
Step 2: Once elected the republicans give themselves unlimited no bid contracts that the government uses to purchase their gigantic war machines.
Step 3: Now that their toys have been purchased, they need an excuse to use them, so they make one up.
Step 4: Now that they've acquired their target, unleash the payload!
Step 5: The next president has declared the war is over! What to do with all this excess equipment?
Step 6: Using a very devious and profitable business tactic, you immediately turn around and sell that equipment to domestic police departments.
Step 7: The domestic police departments then use this newly acquired equipment against the people.
Step 8: The people scared by this newly acquired equipment will then turn around and vote for the same people that gave their departments that excess equipment in the first place out of fear that it will be used on them again.

HA! I figured it out!!!!

[LittleGirl]

19. except

you have two Step 6s.

[Initech]

23. Fixed.

[LittleGirl]

31. :-) eom

[Amonester]

20. Do not forget Step 9: Train foreign country soldiers to use the republicons' war equipment then...

once these soldiers abandoned them to their latest enemies, go back in there to destroy these same equipments before they're used against your own soldiers.

Wash, Rince, Repeat.

[Doremus]

10. Judging by the plywood boards under the tires,

I'd think the weight of the vehicle would preclude its use for productive tasks like snow plow, etc.

They could probably make a mint at the scrap yard though.

[secondvariety]

15. Maybe they can

trade it for a Herkimer Battle Jitney-the finest non-lethal military vehicle made.


http://www.empireonline.com/features/superhero-vehicles-almost-as-cool-as-the-green-hornets-black-beauty/p10

[sarge43]

16. What's the gas mileage on those brutes? One mile per gallon?

That alone should make the city fathers think twice about getting one.

Now if it ran on testosterone ....

[ProdigalJunkMail]

17. 3 MPG I think I read... n/t

[Dawson Leery]

25. The 1033 program must end.

[HooptieWagon]

34. Maybe they'll buy a REAL truck:

Tatra T815 8X8. Goes anywhere. Doesn't break. Made in Czech Republic.

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