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You don't need_____
To go with its billion rounds of ammo, DHS is acquiring 2,700 armored fighting vehicles. And of course drones.
Not that I'd begrudge anyone ten tons of ammo and some really cool cars, but why is it that spokesmen for government power protest "you don't need a (rifle of that type, large magazine, whatever)." Apparently that argument is only applicable when applied to citizens or taxpayers, not when applied to a governmental department.
UPDATE: via Instapundit, ACLU is investigating police militarization.
A prosecutor friend made an interesting point. Every Federal agency (even the Department of Agriculture and the IRS) seems to have its SWAT team. Why? Granted, agencies may need SWAT capabilities from time to time. But those folks don't need the agency's training, they don't need to know how to audit tax forms or do a net worth investigation or handle food stamp fraud. So why isn't there just a handful of Federal SWAT teams ... maybe two or four, spread out ... that agencies may call upon, rather than having, and paying for, their own team?
UPDATED UPDATE: My prosecutor friend figured on the agency's own people going in right behind the SWAT teams. Now, there might be some touchy issues here. Apart from Marshals and FBI, as I recall, agencies do not have *general* arrest powers. Any arrest outside their agency function is a citizen's arrest, with all the legal exposure that entails (no probable cause defense: the arrestee either did it or he didn't, and if he didn't, you're liable for false imprisonment no matter how much it looked like he did). So it might get delicate as to when and by whom an arrest was made. Were the suspects "free to go" after a brief detention, as of when the SWAT team went in? Etc. That might be resolved by putting the SWAT teams in Marshals or FBI.
EVEN MORE UPDATED: Little Green Footballs is reporting that it appears the armored fighting vehicles were a Navy procurement for the Marine Corps. The contract it found matches exactly the number and type of vehicles described.
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Most federal agencies have very narrow jurisdictions. If you have agency A's SWAT team serving a warrant for agency B and agency A does not have jurisdiction over agency B's laws then won't a massive can of worms be opened liability wise?
Empire Building?
What! SHARE SWAT Teams?
Please explain why Article I Section 8 Paragraph 6 exists if McCulloch v Maryland is correct and N&P provide the police power authority in other areas by implication? Why does Article I, Section 8, paragraph 10 exist? Article III, Section 3, Paragraph 2? The enforcement clauses in various amendments?
If police power from implication exists for some grants, they exist for all grants. The inclusion of some grants provide unassailable evidence that the feds do not have police power in any areas other than those granted.
Some may find this incredible but logic and reason dictate this determination.
Why did the Framers and ratifiers state that the police power was left to the states if the fed really have expansive police powers?
FYI. I know for a FACT that the police dept of my town of 10,000 got 3 surplus up-armoured Humvees - probably courtesy of some fed grant. These are as close as you can get to an armoured vehicle without actually getting a purpose designed one.
Oh ya, I forgot to mention they also got a large van labled as a SWAT vehicle around the same time.
Another question? Is there such a thing as a citizen's arrest for a federal crime? My state only allows a citizen arrest for a state felony.
I've a friend that's a fairly senior federal marshal and we've talked about this a bit. According to him, the investigators in each department are mainly for investigating fraud and other crimes committed within or against that particular agency. He's not particularly happy that they seem to have or are building their own swat teams as he sees that as job that the marshal's should be doing.
The young man must have felt that he'd entered the Twilight Zone.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong since my knowledge of this subject is sketchy at best....
But didn't the FBI just 'assume' arrest powers back about the John Dillinger time frame? Previously not having any such authority, and they did it pretty much as a trial balloon. And since no one objected strongly enough, they got away with it and it's been expanding ever since.
Or is that just an urban legend? (can't be an internet legend since it pre-dates AlGore...)
Re: DHS stocking up on ammunition and armored vehicles
Sun Tzu advised to "disrupt your enemies' alliances." I think we all need to be wary of the possibility that Tricky Barak's Dirty Tricks II may be trying to sow disinformation among the new media to disrupt and discredit their veracity. This would force people back to the state-controlled media for 'information'.
The 2 billion round ammunition purchase was shown to be a miscalculation of a federal contract. If the armored vehicles really are for the Marines, then it would be the second time an alarmist new media report has repeated misinformation.
If this is a result of nefarious behavior on the part of a mendacious Administration, well, we'll have to step up our game a bit when it comes to fact-checking. Probably wouldn't hurt to do that anyway.
OK, there apparently ARE some MRAP's being transferred to DHS. Sixteen of them. As noted in David's update, the bulk of that order to refurbish MRAP's was for the Marine Corps (through the Navy).
James and others, my question though is what does DHS need them for? And beyond DHS the many multi-lettered agencies that have been arming up. Local police all the way through to the department of Education and beyond. Just what justifies them having such weaponry? Some of it is just spending tax-payor money okay but the hardware we hear about - I don't think its for our good.
Does anyone know? Is there a "boot camp" some where for recruits....where are They based or are they brown bagging it. It looks like there is very loud lack of any info on His private army...