No Larry, we’re not going to get a tank
County Supervisor Larry Johnston asked, “Why not buy them a tank?” when the Mono County Sheriff’s Department asked to spend $320,000 on new bigger and beefier Chevy Tahoe patrol vehicles in August.
Ironicallty enough, the Pentagon has offered up a tank for free, but the Sheriff’s department is going to pass.
Editor’s Note: I wonder if Braun would’ve gone for it had the Pentagon offered the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle.
The tank, actually a wheeled machine called a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Vehicle, is made to withstand the blast of an improvised explosive device (IED) or ambush attack and comes complete with layers of armored glass, all-terrain suspension and blast-resistant underbellies. The million-dollar behemoths stand nine feet tall and weigh in at 40,000 pounds. “It would probably tear up (Highway) 395,” Sheriff Ingrid Braun told Mono County Supervisors.
Braun told The Sheet she had recently been notified that the department was on a waiting list for an MRAP and was asked if it still wanted one. “I had our name removed from the list,” Braun said in an email. “I can only assume that a prior administration had requested it, as I did not.”
Military grade weapons and vehicles have been available to cops and deputies since 1990 via legislation made during the War on Drugs. American-style leftovers from recent wars, the MRAPs were made to fight terrorists but are being recycled to fight drug dealers and civil unrest.
The vehicles are big enough to handle any terrain but might be a bit too much for local needs. “An MRAP can be a useful tool in a urban setting with significant violent crime. It is deployed as a tactical vehicle, and it provides protection to responders in dangerous situations. However, there are drawbacks to its use,” Braun said. “The gross vehicle weight rating on an MRAP is well over 40,000 pounds; by comparison, our new Tahoes are 7,300 pounds. I don’t know if our roads and bridges could withstand the vehicle weight.” Braun added that MRAPs are, “far from fuel efficient.”
The small battle cruisers move as slow as the internet in Mono County and probably wouldn’t be of much use anyway. “Given the size of our county and the nearly impossible logistics of effectively deploying an MRAP,” Braun said, “I do not feel it would suit our needs.” She said specialized training, not provided by the Pentagon, would have also been necessary.
The MRAP program cost taxpayers $50 billion in 2007 to protect the American warfighter in the Middle East. Prompted by the deaths of so many American soldiers in IED attacks on ill-fitted Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Defense made an emergency order for 27,000. MRAPs saved lives but the military quickly found itself with a mass surplus. The cost of shipping the vehicles overseas was more expensive than selling them for scrap, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.
The Pentagon has deiced to give the tanks away, yes give them away, to fight wars on American soil. The National Defense Authorization Act of 1997, “allows all law enforcement agencies to acquire property for bona fide law enforcement purposes that assist in their arrest and apprehension mission,” according to the Defense Logistic Agency’s 1033 Program.
