Paging Radley Balko: New Dallas Sheriff vehicle a case study in militarization of US law enforcement

A quarter century ago when the Cold War ended, many politicians (perhaps naively) called for a "peace dividend" where the nation could reduce military spending once the Soviet Union no longer posed a credible threat to invade the rest of Europe.  Now that wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down, it turns out our "peace dividend" this time around may amount to bringing the tools and tactics of military occupiers back to the United States for use against its own citizens. How else can one view the Dallas County Sheriff's acquisition of this monstrosity?

The blogs Unfair Park and Gin and Tacos have already covered the bases on this story, with UP's Eric Nicholson cutting to the chase thusly:

OK. Pretty cool. But let's back up for a moment. There's a very glaring, very fundamental question we haven't yet addressed: Why in holy hell does Dallas County need an armored military vehicle built to withstand a minor apocalypse?

The underlying reason seems to be that military trucks are fucking cool, but no one's actually saying that. The sheriff's office is touting it as a tool that will help them better serve warrants.

Which leads Grits to offer two predictions: Either 1) the vehicle will never be used outside parades because it's ill-suited for police use, probably gets around 3 mpg, and nobody will have the parts nor experience to perform routine maintenance, or 2) within the first dozen times the vehicle is used to serve warrants, DCSO will roll up on the wrong house.

For all that many in law enforcement dislike Radley Balko, or at least his caution against militarization of American policing, there sure are a lot of agencies who appear hell-bent on proving him right.

A quarter century ago when the Cold War ended, many politicians (perhaps naively) called for a "peace dividend" where the nation could reduce military spending once the Soviet Union no longer posed a credible threat to invade the rest of Europe.  Now that wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down, it turns out our "peace dividend" this time around may amount to bringing the tools and tactics of military occupiers back to the United States for use against its own citizens. How else can one view the Dallas County Sheriff's acquisition of this monstrosity?

The blogs Unfair Park and Gin and Tacos have already covered the bases on this story, with UP's Eric Nicholson cutting to the chase thusly:

OK. Pretty cool. But let's back up for a moment. There's a very glaring, very fundamental question we haven't yet addressed: Why in holy hell does Dallas County need an armored military vehicle built to withstand a minor apocalypse?

The underlying reason seems to be that military trucks are fucking cool, but no one's actually saying that. The sheriff's office is touting it as a tool that will help them better serve warrants.

Which leads Grits to offer two predictions: Either 1) the vehicle will never be used outside parades because it's ill-suited for police use, probably gets around 3 mpg, and nobody will have the parts nor experience to perform routine maintenance, or 2) within the first dozen times the vehicle is used to serve warrants, DCSO will roll up on the wrong house.

For all that many in law enforcement dislike Radley Balko, or at least his caution against militarization of American policing, there sure are a lot of agencies who appear hell-bent on proving him right.