Atlanta SWAT teams get insane new militarized weaponry

Ahhhh!!!!!

And how much is this going to cost the citizens of Atlanta?

We live in a police state.

Could you just imagine a SWAT team rollling up in one of these and demolishing an innocent person's home on a drug raid gone horribly wrong?

My gosh, don't even want to think that would be a possibility. Scary. We, the people need to demand the demilitarization of our police forces throughout our country.

How do we do this? The scope of what is going on these days is really hard to explain to people.

Easy, send this link to everyone you know. Let them see the photo. Seriously, how many people do you know really want armored tanks roaming their city streets?

Talk with your city council members/mayor's office, they control the police forces' budget. Do we want to spend our tax dollars on tanks? I don't think so.

People are hungry, and this one vehicle cost a half a million dollars!!

Oh, it did say it was donated.

would you rather the Police use a handful of flowers and perhaps a cup of tea to offer the criminal. What a bunch of morons

This is getting pretty out of hand, what if someone aims to steal this vehicle and causes havoc?

I live in Atlanta, and the only places that SWAT is ever seen at is in the Black neighborhoods. I have known that this was coming to Atlanta for quite some time now.

Imagine that ? The home of Dr. Martin Luther King and the birthplace of civil rights is getting ready to turn the tanks loose on their own people.

Sounds likes the south is still the south.

Of course they would try some shit like this in the "black capital".

They are preparing for the election.

Sore losers will rear their ugly heads....if EITHER candidates win.

dress police in military clothes, give them military weapons, and vehicles, train them in military warfare and you can still call them 'police'. What the heck is the difference? they are flippin' military in disguise! Atlanta....hmmm, something to do with canceling the elections..pulling Obama from the ballot? very strange indeed.

You people have lost your minds, do you see black helicopters in your sleep? How many of you know anything about police operations? I spent 26 years in state police and commanded SWAT missions TO PROTECT INNOCENT CITIZENS. I would have given my right arm for an APC to protect my officers from gunfire when they were risking their lives to save ungrateful morons like you. Could the police have used an APC at Columbine to rescue students? What about the LA bank robbery? Texas sniper incident? Hostage situations? Police officers are your neighbors, you friends, in your church congregations, in your PTA. They leave their homes, wives and children in the middle of the night to risk their lives to save yours, in hurricanes, and hostage incidents, and car crashes. They are the ones who would fight against the public corruption you all seem to think is threatening you. Wise up and thank a cop for the protection you have instead of seeing them as the enemy. Your blind hatred of the people who dedicate their lives to protect you is insane. Would you have been this afraid of the cops rushing INTO the twin towers while everyone else was rushing OUT? You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

All this vitriol over one APC?

The NYPD have dozens of V-150's and LAV-25's dedicated to SWAT operations.

The Los Angeles, San Fransisco, and San Diego police departments each have enough armored vehicles and weapons to outfit brigade strength military units.

In Texas, Illinois, and Washington State, they have APC's that were first deployed and perfected in South Africa during the Apartheid era...

So, in other words, the police in this country have been "militarizing" for the past forty years, and all of you are just getting around to noticing?

Haven't they heard of inflation? When they start rolling this thing in neighborhoods somewhere down the line someone is going to learn all they can about explosives and try to take this thing out...or they'll get their own...

phil will be interested in this...

It's been refurbished ladies and gentlemen...

Tell me what you base this on, this contention that "...most are not. Especially in the south..." News reports from left wing sources? There are bad cops, just like there are bad accountants, bad plumbers, bad stock brokers, etc., etc., etc.

I know because I fired some bad cops, and prosecuted some as well. But the vast majority, 99%, are good, hard working, peaceful American citizens. I worked for and with police administrators all across the south, and none, not one, were egomaniacal, corrupt, paranoids building arsenals against the citizens. That is assinine, and very easy for you to spout on the internet because you do not have to be truthful, the truth is not near as entertaining.

We uphold the law, our careers, our lives, our time and energy, is dedicated to upholding the law. Do you think we do it for the pay? My wife and children live in the community I served, as do all police families. Are you really crazy enough to believe we want our own families to grow up in a "police state"? Police are normal everyday people, they are not some secret underground force bent on the overthrow of government.

I agree they need to show respect, but you do not see news reports on the hundreds of thousands of police contacts where they showed respect, you only see the one sensational story where some rogue mistreated someone. I have seen hundreds of incidents where the cops were mistreated by the poor citizens, cussed, spat on, beaten, and had to fight for their lives.

How many police contacts have you seen in person, compared to the thousands I saw per year for 26 years? So who is more informed on the % of good cops, me, or you and your liberal rags.

There are huge problems with our government, on both sides of the isle, but the police are not in on it. The people buying your votes with entitlements and handouts of my tax dollars are your problem.

I would have responded as some of you have even 6 months ago, but I got involved and sat on a 6 month term of the Grand Jury from April until this Month. After seeing hundreds and hundreds of cases I completely support our officers having something like this.

After our jury investigating the condition of equipment on many levels, we found that in many cases (contrary to popular belief), the city and county police forces were in need of many essential resources that they simply did not have.

Many of the resources and equipment that they did have was either donated, or purchased from drug seizures and the like. So believe it or not, it's not like the police are just going around blowing money on toys to blow shit up.

BTW for those of you that aren't from Atlanta, keep in mind that the CDC is also located here, so for some of you needing extreme threat situations to justify equipment like this, it's not implausible. The CDC contains the world's deadliest viruses and biological weapons.

And for a few of you regarding race issues: this has nothing to do with racial issues or 'black crime'. Crime is crime, safety is safety. There are tons of people from all sorts of races and backgrounds working for the Atlanta Police Department. It's not like this is going to be parked on boulevard or busting prostitutes on North Ave.... I'm sorry for the injustice in the past, but stop playing the race card.

Lastly, stop assuming anything is a scandal or plot to take away your freedom... shit... every single one of you would be pissing your pants with joy to see that thing, if you or a family member were in a threatening situation.

watch the movie, THE SIEGE. it goes over a possible military takeover using CIA planned "terrorist" attacks to declare marshall law over New York city.
This new APC is getting ready if all the black ppl have civil unrest and revolt, to quell the resisters by whatever means possible, death including.

Absolutely, watch the movie, Hollywood has all the answers and can see the future. You know that movies are real, there is nothing fictional about them. I understand there is a virus that will turn us all into zombies (I Am Legend), machines will take over the world (Terminator 1, 2, and 3), and an asteroid is headed to earth (Armageddon).

We are all doomed any way, who cares what the police do? Sheesh!!! Sad thing is, this guy is no crazier than the rest of you conspiracy theorists.