The backstory on this photograph dates to January...

[Earth_First]

however, posted 5 hours ago to FDL is this post on the International MaxxPro Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle in which supposedly the DHS had purchased 2,717 of these.



Does anyone have the backstory or update debunking the aforementioned image?

Or are we *really* arming our federal government and civilian law enforcement agencies with vehicles such as these...?!

[Politicalboi]

1. Homeland Security

What a racket. All for NOTHING.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. No we are

There are good reasons for it, can count them with fingers of one hand, and bad reasons...takes more than hands and feet.

Good reason. All terrain, we have used state of the art military vehicles for that...

They come with state of the art comm suites.

Bad reasons, let me count the ways.

[Gregorian]

3. As global warming begins to really become obvious this kind of stupidity will slow down.

Can you imagine the carbon footprint of the DHS. Insane. Totally insane. And all for nothing.

Home of the brave, my ass. Bravery means standing up to authority without the means of physically defending oneself. Kind of like OWS.

[JDPriestly]

4. Who are the terrorists that the Homeland Security is supposed to be protecting against?

How many terrorists are actually believed to be in the US?

Do the numbers and types of terrorists in the US justify the expenditures on anti-terrorism that our government is now making?

If there are enough terrorists to justify these expenditures and the equipment stockpiled, why don't I know any terrorists? I've never met one in my long life, and I certainly haven't met any recently.

Is there perhaps some other reason for buying all this military equipment? Are we expecting an invasion? A huge crime wave? Famine?

Is Homeland Security actually just trying to stop our use of our First Amendment and other rights?

I'm not drawing conclusions. I'm just asking questions. I think that the Homeland Security Department should be much more transparent about just what the threats are that it is concerned about.

I remember all the hiding under our desks that we did in grade school out of fear of a nuclear attack. In fact, we should have been more concerned about the above-ground nuclear tests in the deserts just windward from our homes in the Midwest.

Sometimes the cure can be worse than the illness. Is that the case with Homeland Security? Why are we spending so much money and putting so much effort into this? Are the threats really that great?

It does not seem to me that Homeland Security would have prevented the attacks on the World Trade Center. I certainly can't imagine that local police wearing the armor and riding horses the way they did in Portland Oregon when evicting the Occupy movement would have prevented those attacks.

Is our government really of, for and by the people? Or is it afraid of, against and prepared to attack the people? I'm not concluding either way, but I would like to know or at least have more information so that I can make up my own mind.

Maybe Homeland Security is just a big kick-back scheme for the industry that produces these Star Wars toys? We need some answers, some clarification, some explanations on this. It's so puzzling. Not enough money for health-care or education, but lots for arming our local police in flashy riot gear. If this isn't a waste of taxpayer money, I would like to know why not.

[DCKit]

5. Wow! Why don't our overseas troops rate such hard-core gear?

Obviously, DHS is more scared of us than the Pentagram is of A.Q. and the Taliban (is it the TaliBaptists?).

You really need something like that to arrest someone for smoking pot?