Oh Dear God! It wasn't enough to put guns on school campuses. Now they have to have militarized SWAT armored vehicles!
Tanks at the school gates? San Diego school police acquires its own MRAP Police captain plays down fears of militarisation and says ‘When we have an emergency at school, we’ve got to get in and save kids’
The nation gaped at the sight of a military-grade Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle trundling through Ferguson, but it turns out that was relatively restrained policing.
Relative, that is, to San Diego, where police will use a similar steel behemoth for the city’s schools.
The San Diego Unified School District Police Department has acquired its own vehicle, known as a MRAP, and expect it to be operational by October.
“I can totally see people thinking ‘Oh, my God. Are they going to be rolling armoured vehicles into our schools and what the hell’s going on?’” Captain Joe Florentino told local media.
Police intended to use it to rescue children – be it from rampaging gunmen or natural disasters, he said. “When we have an emergency at a school, we’ve got to get in and save kids.”
Just how many times has the San Diego USD experienced an emergency in which a vehicle such as this would have been of use? I don't recall ever having heard of any such thing occurring there or anywhere else in the state of California. It seems likely that an event of such magnitude would have made the news.