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Indybay Feature
Santa Cruz City Council Session on the BearCat
On Tuesday, March 24th, at 7PM the Santa Cruz City Council will reconsider the purchase of a BearCat Armored Vehicle for the Santa Cruz Police Department, and a proposed policy of use if the vehicle is received.
A proposed citywide grants procedure is also on the agenda.
http://scsire.cityofsantacruz.com/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=631&doctype=AGENDA
Thousands of citizens, and many local organizations, have objected to the purchase of the BearCat and the rushed, faulty process that brought it about - by petitions, by email, by letter, by phone calls, by meetings with city officials, and by showing up and speaking out at five public rallies and a public forum presented by SCRAM!
Though the BearCat is being referred to as a "rescue vehicle” in the documents presented for the March 24th meeting, the application submitted to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the funds to purchase it emphasizes other uses.
The application describes its primary purposes as being: to support the SCPD SWAT team, and to engage in anti-terrorism work.
The basic vehicle is fully armored and comes equipped with 11 interior gun ports. The SCPD has ordered an optional battering ram, costing an extra $10,500. The total cost for this armored and highly militarized vehicle is $250,500.
SWAT Uses
SWAT was not mentioned during the original SCPD presentation to City Council on December 9th, 2014, nor is it mentioned in the current documents submitted for the March 24th meeting.
The grant proposal submitted to DHS, however, states: “Currently our SWAT team has 18 members… …the capability gap that this project is intended to address” includes to “support the deployment of SWAT…”
Lenco itself describes their BearCat as a SWAT vehicle. Here is the promotional video that Lenco uses to sell the BearCat, featuring a highly militarized use as a SWAT truck. It also graphically displays the battering ram in use.
"the Way SWAT does Business” from Lenco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqZYIApWrpU&feature=youtu.be
And, here are links to military vs. law enforcement models of the BearCat.
http://www.lencoarmor.com/military/
http://www.lencoarmor.com/law-enforcement/
The BearCat IS an armored personnel carrier. A recent ACLU report “War Comes Home” indicates that APC’s are used by police almost 80% of the time to serve search warrants in drug cases. APCs have often been used to intimidate public political protests since SWAT was developed in LA in the 60’s. The ACLU report refers to APC’s as a “battlefield vehicle” that “…increased the risk of property damage and bodily harm.”
Many, even including locals here in Santa Cruz, have been harmed and killed in botched SWAT raids.
Anti-terrorism Uses
The BearCat is also described by the manufacturer, Lenco, as a CBRNE vehicle, i.e. a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear explosives response vehicle.
The central anti-terrorism theme of the grant proposal was also not mentioned by SCPD on 12/9/14 , nor is it mentioned in the documents submitted for the March 24th meeting.
From the grant proposal submitted by SCPD:
"we have training in CBRNE response… This special incident response vehicle is a missing element needed.."
In fact, the Project Name of the proposal submitted to DHS is:
“Project Name: CBRNE Incident Response Vehicle”
The proposal refers to “…attacks from violent extremists”
and takes as its objective:
"Objective: Strengthen Terrorism Attribution, Interdiction and Disruption Capabilities.”
SCRAM! and its many cosponsors join with thousands of Santa Cruz citizens in asking the City Council to Return the BearCat, and direct staff to research other truly protective, defensive vehicles if one is needed for our first responders, and present the options in a full and robust public process.
Yes, our fire and police officers deserve protection when needed, but not in a way that creates intense fear and mistrust between the public and the police.
Grants Procedure
SCRAM! welcomes the attempt to present a new citywide grants procedure process, but also finds the current proposal too weak.
The floor for grants requests that must go through rigorous review should start at $10K, not $100K as the current proposal recommends. Also, the loophole of using the Capital Improvements Program, on a three year cycle, to backdoor grants and equipment, should be removed. The closing sentence that states, “Similarly, repeat or substantially similar grants, or grants to replace equipment, do not require prior Council action.”, should also be deleted.
Santa Cruz, to be a city committed to true democratic process, needs full transparency, timeliness, and public participation. The grants proposal goes part way, but much more is needed.
Also, preceding the Council meeting SCRAM! sponsors a Send the BearCat Back! Rally at 6PM, in the Courtyard at City Hall music, speeches, updates Special Guest: Richard Stockton.
SCRAM!, an ad hoc organizing group, has three primary goals:
1) to bring the BearCat back onto the SC City Council agenda for a full public hearing and to rescind the approval
2) to establish a long term policy for grant applications and acceptance in the City that ensures timeliness, transparency, full public disclosure and input
3) to help develop and implement future policies that prevent militarized equipment from flowing into law enforcement agencies throughout Santa Cruz County
The goals and work of SCRAM! are supported by, a growing list…….:
ACLU of Northern CA (SC Chapter), Project Pollinate, People United for Peace (SC County), Santa Cruz Quaker Meeting, Resource Center for Nonviolence, Food Not Bombs, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (SC), Veterans for Peace (SC), Sin Barras, Community Coalition to Overcome Racism (SC County), Jewish Voice for Peace (SC), People's Democratic Club, Peace and Freedom Party (SC), Homeless Persons Legal Assistance Project, MediaWatch/Youth Radio Project, ISLAH Reparations Project, United Nations Association (SC), Code Pink (SC), Romero Institute, Thrive Santa Cruz, Women in Black (SC), Bill Motto Post 5888 Veterans of Foreign Wars, Palestine-Israel Action Committee ……..
http://scsire.cityofsantacruz.com/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=631&doctype=AGENDA
Thousands of citizens, and many local organizations, have objected to the purchase of the BearCat and the rushed, faulty process that brought it about - by petitions, by email, by letter, by phone calls, by meetings with city officials, and by showing up and speaking out at five public rallies and a public forum presented by SCRAM!
Though the BearCat is being referred to as a "rescue vehicle” in the documents presented for the March 24th meeting, the application submitted to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the funds to purchase it emphasizes other uses.
The application describes its primary purposes as being: to support the SCPD SWAT team, and to engage in anti-terrorism work.
The basic vehicle is fully armored and comes equipped with 11 interior gun ports. The SCPD has ordered an optional battering ram, costing an extra $10,500. The total cost for this armored and highly militarized vehicle is $250,500.
SWAT Uses
SWAT was not mentioned during the original SCPD presentation to City Council on December 9th, 2014, nor is it mentioned in the current documents submitted for the March 24th meeting.
The grant proposal submitted to DHS, however, states: “Currently our SWAT team has 18 members… …the capability gap that this project is intended to address” includes to “support the deployment of SWAT…”
Lenco itself describes their BearCat as a SWAT vehicle. Here is the promotional video that Lenco uses to sell the BearCat, featuring a highly militarized use as a SWAT truck. It also graphically displays the battering ram in use.
"the Way SWAT does Business” from Lenco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqZYIApWrpU&feature=youtu.be
And, here are links to military vs. law enforcement models of the BearCat.
http://www.lencoarmor.com/military/
http://www.lencoarmor.com/law-enforcement/
The BearCat IS an armored personnel carrier. A recent ACLU report “War Comes Home” indicates that APC’s are used by police almost 80% of the time to serve search warrants in drug cases. APCs have often been used to intimidate public political protests since SWAT was developed in LA in the 60’s. The ACLU report refers to APC’s as a “battlefield vehicle” that “…increased the risk of property damage and bodily harm.”
Many, even including locals here in Santa Cruz, have been harmed and killed in botched SWAT raids.
Anti-terrorism Uses
The BearCat is also described by the manufacturer, Lenco, as a CBRNE vehicle, i.e. a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear explosives response vehicle.
The central anti-terrorism theme of the grant proposal was also not mentioned by SCPD on 12/9/14 , nor is it mentioned in the documents submitted for the March 24th meeting.
From the grant proposal submitted by SCPD:
"we have training in CBRNE response… This special incident response vehicle is a missing element needed.."
In fact, the Project Name of the proposal submitted to DHS is:
“Project Name: CBRNE Incident Response Vehicle”
The proposal refers to “…attacks from violent extremists”
and takes as its objective:
"Objective: Strengthen Terrorism Attribution, Interdiction and Disruption Capabilities.”
SCRAM! and its many cosponsors join with thousands of Santa Cruz citizens in asking the City Council to Return the BearCat, and direct staff to research other truly protective, defensive vehicles if one is needed for our first responders, and present the options in a full and robust public process.
Yes, our fire and police officers deserve protection when needed, but not in a way that creates intense fear and mistrust between the public and the police.
Grants Procedure
SCRAM! welcomes the attempt to present a new citywide grants procedure process, but also finds the current proposal too weak.
The floor for grants requests that must go through rigorous review should start at $10K, not $100K as the current proposal recommends. Also, the loophole of using the Capital Improvements Program, on a three year cycle, to backdoor grants and equipment, should be removed. The closing sentence that states, “Similarly, repeat or substantially similar grants, or grants to replace equipment, do not require prior Council action.”, should also be deleted.
Santa Cruz, to be a city committed to true democratic process, needs full transparency, timeliness, and public participation. The grants proposal goes part way, but much more is needed.
Also, preceding the Council meeting SCRAM! sponsors a Send the BearCat Back! Rally at 6PM, in the Courtyard at City Hall music, speeches, updates Special Guest: Richard Stockton.
SCRAM!, an ad hoc organizing group, has three primary goals:
1) to bring the BearCat back onto the SC City Council agenda for a full public hearing and to rescind the approval
2) to establish a long term policy for grant applications and acceptance in the City that ensures timeliness, transparency, full public disclosure and input
3) to help develop and implement future policies that prevent militarized equipment from flowing into law enforcement agencies throughout Santa Cruz County
The goals and work of SCRAM! are supported by, a growing list…….:
ACLU of Northern CA (SC Chapter), Project Pollinate, People United for Peace (SC County), Santa Cruz Quaker Meeting, Resource Center for Nonviolence, Food Not Bombs, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (SC), Veterans for Peace (SC), Sin Barras, Community Coalition to Overcome Racism (SC County), Jewish Voice for Peace (SC), People's Democratic Club, Peace and Freedom Party (SC), Homeless Persons Legal Assistance Project, MediaWatch/Youth Radio Project, ISLAH Reparations Project, United Nations Association (SC), Code Pink (SC), Romero Institute, Thrive Santa Cruz, Women in Black (SC), Bill Motto Post 5888 Veterans of Foreign Wars, Palestine-Israel Action Committee ……..
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...We have some concerns:
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/03/21/18770244.php?show_comments=1#18770340
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/03/21/18770244.php?show_comments=1#18770340
For those who don't get local news, the city council did NOT give back the BearCat. The original decision stands.
That's the way the process should work.
My impression is that 'the people' decided, via 'majority vote', and then a handful of 'elected representatives' ignored their constituency and changed things, against the will of the voters, via 'their process'.
For more information:
http://PeaceCamp2010insider.blogspot.com/
What "process"? A reiteration of their shoddy sales pitch and a pack of lies like they're REALLY going to use this thing in an active shooter incident to 'rescue hostages and treat them'? That they REALLY THINK a fire engine or ambulance will ever come under fire from an active shooter?
That’s a stretch of the imagination so far that it might snap like a rubberband, and the SCPD PAYS PEOPLE to pander this fear-filled shit at us.
(tangentially on this point, The Pentagon's operation Northwoods papers showed a plan to use an airliner as a weapon. Sure enough, 40 years or so later, someone DID, and it was one of their own. Osama bin-Laden, disgruntled Pentagon mercenary recruiter)
MY take away was one police chief stating in so many words:
'We've already used one and you didn't even notice! So what's the problem?'
The problem IS the SCPD is a politically contaminated thug squad who shouldn't even be allowed to carry guns.
I can just hear them say something similar to that after they acquire a torture chamber like the Chicago PD has (not HAD... has)
Read my tweets.
That’s a stretch of the imagination so far that it might snap like a rubberband, and the SCPD PAYS PEOPLE to pander this fear-filled shit at us.
(tangentially on this point, The Pentagon's operation Northwoods papers showed a plan to use an airliner as a weapon. Sure enough, 40 years or so later, someone DID, and it was one of their own. Osama bin-Laden, disgruntled Pentagon mercenary recruiter)
MY take away was one police chief stating in so many words:
'We've already used one and you didn't even notice! So what's the problem?'
The problem IS the SCPD is a politically contaminated thug squad who shouldn't even be allowed to carry guns.
I can just hear them say something similar to that after they acquire a torture chamber like the Chicago PD has (not HAD... has)
Read my tweets.
The familiar procedural ritual. The 'security theater'. The 'in one ear out the other' predisposement. The context that pre-mocks dissent. The suits and ties that lend 'gravitas' to their 'representative' words and actions amongst the fear induced (it's interesting to note how often the 'four horsemen' are trotted out when making police state pitches, yet how little is actually done about pedophiles (for example), even when caught, like that (ex?)TBSC/CleanTeam member Greiner).
There will be a similar process, conveniently forgetting all that was said and done to validate the militarism acquisition, when 'bearcat involved killings' become news.
"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater." -- Frank Zappa
I'd read the tweets but, you know.
There will be a similar process, conveniently forgetting all that was said and done to validate the militarism acquisition, when 'bearcat involved killings' become news.
"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater." -- Frank Zappa
I'd read the tweets but, you know.
For more information:
http://PeaceCamp2010insider.blogspot.com/
The tweets are all in the pic on that comment G
Here's a follow up:
Just visited some friends at the nearby coffeeshop. Some customers also got involved in dunning the police thugs and "Neighborhood Watch" including one person who's a law student interning with the DA's office. Long Hot Summer comin' up. Turns out the person (20-something) taken down by the police due to slow response to the ID demand was depressed over losing his job and housing.
#ACAB #FTP
Here's a follow up:
Just visited some friends at the nearby coffeeshop. Some customers also got involved in dunning the police thugs and "Neighborhood Watch" including one person who's a law student interning with the DA's office. Long Hot Summer comin' up. Turns out the person (20-something) taken down by the police due to slow response to the ID demand was depressed over losing his job and housing.
#ACAB #FTP
there was a city council meeting. results exactly as expected.
want to give a bearcat back, if you're up to it, you might have to work on a real coalition of voters to show up and actually elect people who aren't actively promoting militarization of police, the jailing poor people, ignoring tenants rights, ignoring Latinos, trying to drive others out of town.
the time for organizing for next election should start now.
in case you hadn't noticed, the other side already is.
want to give a bearcat back, if you're up to it, you might have to work on a real coalition of voters to show up and actually elect people who aren't actively promoting militarization of police, the jailing poor people, ignoring tenants rights, ignoring Latinos, trying to drive others out of town.
the time for organizing for next election should start now.
in case you hadn't noticed, the other side already is.
Why don't YOU 'vote'?
You apparently haven't lived around here long enough to notice there ARE NO Politrixians, save an occasional lone ineffectual-as-a-single-individual outlier, who would do ANYTHING to prevent the commercial property/rental property's BFFs, the SCPD from having ANYTHING they want.
Want the Bearcat gone folks? Re-organize to appear at the thing's storage and BARGE IT. Attempt to destroy it like some pacifists, including an 82 year old nun, did to various mil-industrial equipment around the country over the years.
http://fpif.org/oak_ridge_activists_challenge_disarmament_advocates_to_step_up_their_games/
http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/the-plowshares-8-thirty-years-on/
'We already used it and you didn’t even notice so what's the big deal?'
These people are mentally ill with their own psychopathically rationalizing arrogance, and they have guns.
Stop them NOW!
You apparently haven't lived around here long enough to notice there ARE NO Politrixians, save an occasional lone ineffectual-as-a-single-individual outlier, who would do ANYTHING to prevent the commercial property/rental property's BFFs, the SCPD from having ANYTHING they want.
Want the Bearcat gone folks? Re-organize to appear at the thing's storage and BARGE IT. Attempt to destroy it like some pacifists, including an 82 year old nun, did to various mil-industrial equipment around the country over the years.
http://fpif.org/oak_ridge_activists_challenge_disarmament_advocates_to_step_up_their_games/
http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/the-plowshares-8-thirty-years-on/
"When Molly Rush walked into the GE nuclear weapons plant in September of 1980, she hammered on a warhead nose cone and “put a hole in one and a dent in another. And, I thought, these things are as vulnerable as we are, and we can undo what has been done." ~~Phillip BerriganForce a confrontation with the police to protect their toy, and you WILL get national media attention on the issue of police militarization and the community's opposition to that trend.
'We already used it and you didn’t even notice so what's the big deal?'
These people are mentally ill with their own psychopathically rationalizing arrogance, and they have guns.
Stop them NOW!
While Santa Cruz county just RE-CRIMINALIZED most medical marijuana grows that supply people who can't grow their own (and most can't because they live in very expensive closets called housing that have not one inch of exposed earth available) in Washington D.C. they just had their first Free Marijuana giveaway.
"This is an experiment in democracy — and horticulture,"
https://news.vice.com/article/heres-why-people-were-essentially-giving-out-free-weed-in-washington-dc
That's something Santa Cruz residents should surely miss.
Democracy.
“My ISIS is the police … the police are licensed to kill us — children, old people … Nobody from ISIS ever terrorized us as a people as the police do daily … If I was going to carry a weapon, it wouldn’t be against you, it wouldn’t be against these people who come here that I might have a dispute with. Mine would be for the police … And if I carried a gun I’d want to shoot him first and then ask questions later, like they say the cop ought to do.”
— Nebraska’s longest-serving state senator Ernie Chambers compares ISIS to US police and states why he supports his right to bear arms. More, including footage of the Nebraska State Senate hearing where Chambers made the comments at the InformationLiberation link below.
"This is an experiment in democracy — and horticulture,"
https://news.vice.com/article/heres-why-people-were-essentially-giving-out-free-weed-in-washington-dc
That's something Santa Cruz residents should surely miss.
Democracy.
“My ISIS is the police … the police are licensed to kill us — children, old people … Nobody from ISIS ever terrorized us as a people as the police do daily … If I was going to carry a weapon, it wouldn’t be against you, it wouldn’t be against these people who come here that I might have a dispute with. Mine would be for the police … And if I carried a gun I’d want to shoot him first and then ask questions later, like they say the cop ought to do.”
— Nebraska’s longest-serving state senator Ernie Chambers compares ISIS to US police and states why he supports his right to bear arms. More, including footage of the Nebraska State Senate hearing where Chambers made the comments at the InformationLiberation link below.
For more information:
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=5...
The 'usuals' amongst SCRAM haven't 'won' much of political significance in a long time, and they show no signs of learning from their failures. Clearly the sitting City Council (and gangs) consider them ignorable. Perhaps that is because they are truly toothless, or perhaps because "what are you going to do about it" is the functional law of the land.
I'm reminded of immunity-evergreen Cheney's profane comment to Leahy on the Senate floor. The same Cheney of the Haliburton gang. The same Haliburton in the Iraq War business. The same Leahy that was anthraxed. The same anthrax that is rumored to have been, in a landmark 'crossing the Rubicon' moment, applied by the CIA (see also: Matt DeHart).
In case you hadn't noticed.
I'm reminded of immunity-evergreen Cheney's profane comment to Leahy on the Senate floor. The same Cheney of the Haliburton gang. The same Haliburton in the Iraq War business. The same Leahy that was anthraxed. The same anthrax that is rumored to have been, in a landmark 'crossing the Rubicon' moment, applied by the CIA (see also: Matt DeHart).
In case you hadn't noticed.
For more information:
http://PeaceCamp2010insider.blogspot.com/
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