In Bid for Tanks, NH Police Label Protest Groups 'Terrorists'

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/06-4


A BearCat tank parks outside an Occupy DC encampment. (Photo: Mr. T in DC/ Flickr)


In a bid to bring armored vehicles to the small, capital city of Concord, New Hampshire, the local police department is trying to exploit peaceful activist groups such as Occupy New Hampshire and the libertarian Free State Project as "terror threats."

Through a right to know request, the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union (NHCLU)—as part of an ongoing project against the militarization of local law enforcement agencies—obtained a grant filed by the Concord Police Department requesting $258,000 from the Department of Homeland Security for an armored BearCat vehicle.

"The State of New Hampshire’s experience with terrorism slants primarily towards the domestic type," the grant states, adding that—with groups such as the "Free Staters" and Occupy NH active and presenting "daily challenges"—the "threat is real and here."

"It's far from clear to us why an armored vehicle would be necessary to address what are generally, by and large, non-violent movements that in fact provide little or no threat to the security of our state," said Devon Chaffee, executive director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union.

[KG]

1. man, i'm soooo glad i don't live in a police state....

[RKP5637]

2. The tanks should really be to protect the rest of us from nuts like this

local police department.

[cali]

3. I'm so glad I live on the other side of the river

[bunnies]

12. You have one too.

http://www.policemag.com/channel/vehicles/news/2011/11/07/vermont-state-police-acquire-armored-truck.aspx

[cali]

16. Yeah, but it sure wasn't obtained so the VSP could deal with such groups as Occupy

Let me repeat: I'm so glad that I live on the other side of the river. Vermont and NH politics are like night and day. NH has improved over the years but there are still a lot of wingnuts- and some are in the NH legislature.

[bunnies]

17. We do have our share, Cali. Thats for sure.

And they're a special breed of crazy too. Like teabaggers on steroids. I think the cop in Concord really just wanted a toy and needed a reason to justify it. The state already has at least two of these things. I mean... how many more do we need? Hopefully enough people will speak out against it that Concord won't accept the grant. Theres a town meeting on Aug 12 to discuss it so we'll see how it goes.

The cop has since walked back his yammering about Occupy. Saying he wished he had worded it differently and blamed the shortness of the form. He now says he's worried about a Boston bombing style incident during the primaries. Maybe he should have said that to begin with.

I lived in VT for a couple of years back in the early 90's and if I could stand being so far away from the ocean... Id go back in a heartbeat. We have family that lives way up past the end on 95. Its so beautiful up there.

[cali]

18. I totally understand. I'm an ocean person, not a mountain person

I miss the ocean more than I can express. NH has VT beat on that front, that's for sure.

[PoliticAverse]

4. Um, It's not a 'tank'. n/t

[aristocles]

5. That's NOT a tank. nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. As a peaceful protester who saw one of these monstrosities waiting to be used against us

I'd say "fucking close enough". Also, "Get these things off of our streets!"



Oh, and Obama said:

"Weapons of war have no place on our streets."

http://www.9news.com/video/2142391330001/1/Obama-Weapons-of-war-have-no-place-on-our-streets

[FiveGoodMen]

11. Everything Obama said was a lie

EVERYTHING.

[bunnies]

15. Its not a weapon.

Unless you think every vehicle is a weapon. Its not even armed.

[Fire Walk With Me]

19. You are unclear on the message it and its armored and armed personnel send?

"Do what we say or else". Matters not one whit that we were peacefully protesting. IT IS NOT JUSTIFIED, it is intimidation and part of an extended list of harassments, arrests, beatings, and other intimidations continuously foisted upon the peaceful, righteous Occupy movement.

Never saw one of those armored carriers around a "tea party" gathering where they openly carried weapons. You know?

Seriously, you need to get out and protest and see something like that waiting to drive into your midst to Understand. They've driven motorcycles into us, ridden horses into us, shoved us, herded and kettled us, pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed us, had a dog on a leash at one event, pulled a "less-lethal" shotgun on us at a chili-eating party (not even a protest)...wtf. I have no desire to find out what they'd do with that thing, because the clearly visible Trend is intimidation and harm.

I suppose you have to peacefully protest for well over a year and experience them in person for it to really register. Suffice to say, when you stand up and demand things be made better, you will meet endless numbers of riot police, see your fellows snatched while they're looking in the other direction and given made-up felony charges, media lies and SILENCE from the White House...excepting of course, Obama's quote that weapons of war do not belong on our streets. Huh.

[geek tragedy]

6. If it has a passenger side door, it's not a tank. nt

[burnodo]

8. then why did they lie in order to get it?

it have some tankicity

[geek tragedy]

9. Because bureaucrats exaggerate on grant/funding forms

The PD here has admitted it screwed up.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. OK, it's a ^%%$# quarter million dollar armored vehicle

with a %%$@# side door.

Not a tank.

That's **&^% comforting.

[malaise]

13. And that has always been the problem with a stupid amorphous

notion such as 'war on terror'. The lovers of perpetual war will always have an enemy.
Is it fascism yet?

[bunnies]

14. He also walked it back.

While the sovereign citizens movement has a history of racism and violence, Police Chief John Duval now says that he doesn't actually believe the Free State Project or Occupy New Hampshire are domestic terror threats. "I wish I would have worded things different in retrospect," he says. "I understand why their eyebrows are raised about that." He chalks up the wording to the limitations of writing a detailed proposal in only three pages and says it was meant to refer to the "unpredictable nature of unpredictable people who attach themselves to otherwise lawful situations."

Duval has no plans to issue a formal apology, but he has exchanged emails with Carla Gericke, president of the Free State Project, to explain his position, which he has also attempted to clarify with local reporters.

The city's application says the vehicle, a Lenco BearCat G3, could be used to respond to acts of terrorism involving "chemical, biological, and radiological materials as well as explosive gases" and smaller-scale crises such as "suicidal and hostage situations." Duval says his department needs the vehicle to replace a 1981 Air Force Peacekeeper that's fallen into disrepair. Concord's population is just over 40,000, but as a capital city in the state that hosts the first-in-the-nation presidential primaries, Duval doesn't want to rule out the possibility of an attack like the Boston Marathon bombing.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/occupy-free-state-project-dhs-police-concord