Campus

Berkeley Campus Police Get $200,000 Grant to Buy Armored Car

The University of California at Berkeley is infamous for its long record of facing protests and disorder, both from students and from outside forces. Indeed, ever since the infamous “free speech” protests at Berkeley in the 60′s, the campus’ name has practically become synonymous with left wing protest. Consider this clip of Berkeley activist Mario Savio from 1964:

Now, however, it looks like the UC Berkeley Campus Police are finally getting serious – perhaps a little too serious. Josiah Ryan at Campus Reform recently received news from a Berkeley Campus Police spokesman that the unit received a $200,000 grant to buy an armored vehicle known as a Bearcat. For those of you who don’t follow weapons grade automobiles, this is the object in question:

UC Berkeley Campus Police Get $200,000 Grant to Buy Bearcat Armored CarImagine that thing driving up to a group of protesters and see if you can imagine them sticking around for very long. Here’s the full story from Ryan’s article:

Lt. Eric Tejada, a spokesman for UCPD, said the university plans to use the vehicle along with neighboring counties in dangerous situations that could involved heavy weapons.
Tejada said that although he does know of any incident in the university’s 144-year history in which such a vehicle would have saved a life, the police department would have have liked to deploy it in an incident last year when they mistakenly believed a man had an AK-47 assault rifle.[...]
The tactical working group of which the UCPD is a member said “the armored vehicle is needed for ‘large incidents’ such as CAL games and the Solano Stroll,” notes the [Berkeley City Council] meeting’s minutes.
The grant was obtained under the DHS’s Urban Areas Security Initiative. The vehicle will be shared with two neighboring jurisdictions and likely will not be stored on UC-Berkeley’s campus, said Tejada.
Naturally enough, some Professors (even at other schools) are crying foul, claiming that the university should be spending more money on preventing crime, not using massive armored vehicles to fight it. This might be true, but we’re not sure we accept that the dichotomy has to be that strict. Knowing that a Bearcat can drive up at any second will probably deter any campus thugs from doing anything particularly objectionable. We know deterrence is out of fashion as a theory of criminal justice, but in all seriousness

Comments (63)

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  • soybomb315
    Posted on June 30, 2012 at 9:27am

    The federal government (DHS etc) is doing this all over the country – they are arming the local police with paramilitary equipment.

    Question: Why are they doing this? What do they know that we dont know?

    Report Post » soybomb315  
    • Ray2447
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 12:53pm

      The base of the Marxist revolutionary movement in America is on campuses like Berkley. For decades, professors have been spewing their left wing indoctrination from taxpayer funded teacher’s podiums all across America, but especially in NY and CA. Indeed, right next door to Berkley in Oakland we’ve recently seen a strong, Marxist-Leninist affiliated Occupy movement that has defied law and law enforcement for weeks, or more.

      Given UC Berkley’s decades long, Marxist-Leninist history of anti-American agitation and violence, and the lawlessness of the Obama administration (Fast & Furious, I support Occupy, etc.), it’s prudent for local law enforcement to take steps to protect against the Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries that the Obama administration and its cronies work overtime to unleash.

      Anyone who’s ever been a student in a taxpayer funded college or university in CA knows the Marxist-Lenist vitriol that is daily spewed there – as shown in “Marxist Valley College” at Youtube. http://tinyurl.com/44btbq8

      Report Post »  
    • Sgt_Rock
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 3:18pm

      Police departments, by virtue of their structure and organization, have always been paramilitary. It would be difficult to manage a law enforcement agency if you strictly ran it like a business. Financially it should be run like a business to ensure accountability for budget etc, but structure and personnel wise it needs to run like a paramilitary organization because of the mission. They tried the business model in the 70′s and it was a miserable failure.
      As for the military equipment, the protective gear, body armor, kevlar helmets etc. they have become necessary as more and more officers are assaulted and killed by individuals who are better armed than they are. Much of the gear received from the Gov‘t isn’t armor or weapons. It’s office equipment, civilian vehicles like vans and pick ups, even washers and dryers. Most (obviously not weapons and armor) is eventually available to civilians at auction. Where do you think surplus stores get their merchandise? If it is not sold it becomes available to be donated to churches, Boys Scout troops, schools etc. If it isn’t “donated” it is destroyed. So a lot of folks have access to excess property and these acquisitions help offset local tax dollars being spent on stuff most agencies couldn’t otherwise afford, despite having a real need for them. What this means, is that your tax dollars are not being wasted. If someone can use the gear it gets reused. Once they’re done, they turn it back in (weapons, vehicles and armor)

      Report Post » Sgt_Rock  
    • 702TruthSeeker
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 7:31pm

      they are getting prepared just as we are.. stocking up on hollow points, moving light armor to heavily populated areas.. when it hits the fan, those who are prepared will survive and hopefully not end up in a camp

      Report Post »  
    • markswetnika
      Posted on July 3, 2012 at 10:59pm

      as a Cal grad, I am tempted to yell Go Bear(cats)!

      Report Post »  
  • RamonPreston
    Posted on June 30, 2012 at 8:41am

    It’s for crowd control. The FEMA camps are ready and waiting. The 100 year old plan is almost completed. Welcome to the NWO. 90% of Americans will die unless they wake up NOW!

    Report Post » RamonPreston  
    • CulperGang
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 10:12am

      FEMA Camps is a eupehmism for another HOLOCAUST. This time target: Americans not the Jews.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy9avV4iChk&feature=related the link is about the

      organizers of the pending holocaust. Notice the Americans named……Condi Rice? yes.

      Report Post » CulperGang  
    • ENIGMA28724
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 9:19pm

      I’m told the armor and glass on the Bearcat vehicles are bulletproof including 50 cal BMG armor piercing. I’ve see and been in one and I am skeptical. I guess we’ll find out if they start trying to heard people into FEMA camps.

      Report Post »  
  • SamIamTwo
    Posted on June 30, 2012 at 8:41am

    So anyone figure it out yet, eh? I have an ideal. Let’s use the stryker, dual purpose vehicle, to pre-emptive uprisings in large populated cities (foreign and domestic)

    After all that is one reason for the farm issuing the contract back in the 90′s…

    If you didn’t go to Iraq, it may come to you…just speculation…

    Report Post » SamIamTwo  
    • soybomb315
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 2:10pm

      “If you didn’t go to Iraq, it may come to you”

      brilliant line

      Report Post » soybomb315  
  • Hugh Williams
    Posted on June 30, 2012 at 8:29am

    Can’t everyone see this is just another part the government needs when they bring the top down? The black panthers, unions and other leftist groups are creating trouble at the bottom to give the government an excuse to bring the top down to crush any freedom still left in America. It is the classic Saul Alinsky tactic bottom up, top down.

    Report Post » Hugh Williams  
    • SamIamTwo
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 8:37am

      Starting to look much like Iraq…IED proof vehicles.

      Report Post » SamIamTwo  
  • Flyingfish
    Posted on June 30, 2012 at 8:17am

    I need one of those for commuting. No more heavy breaking when some moron on their cell phone cuts me off. Just a bumb and a crunch as I roll over the top of them.

    Report Post » Flyingfish  
  • KidCharlemagne
    Posted on June 30, 2012 at 5:52am

    The militarization/federalization of local police has been going on for nearly 30 years now:

    ———————————————–
    Small-Town Cops Pile Up on Useless Military Gear
    June 26, 2012

    Small police departments across America are collecting battlefield-grade arsenals thanks to a program that allows them to get their hands on military surplus equipment – amphibious tanks, night-vision goggles, and even barber chairs or underwear – at virtually no cost, except for shipment and maintenance.

    Over the last five years, the top 10 beneficiaries of this “Department of Defense Excess Property Program” included small agencies such as the Fairmount Police Department. It serves 7,000 people in northern Georgia and received 17,145 items from the military. The cops in Issaquah, Washington, a town of 30,000 people, acquired more than 37,000 pieces of gear.

    In 2011 alone, more than 700,000 items were transferred to police departments for a total value of $500 million. This year, as of May 15, police departments already acquired almost $400 million worth of stuff. Last year’s record would have certainly been shattered if the Arizona Republic hadn’t revealed in early May that a local police department used the program to stockpile equipment – and then sold the gear to others, something that is strictly forbidden.
    http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/cops-military-gear/all/

    Report Post »  
    • ENIGMA28724
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 9:24pm

      Sounds like the Injustice department should have done some investigating and sought inditements for those responsible, on both ends. How could someone not notice all that gear going to tiny departments in Podunk, USA I‘ll be a lot of the gear went to the surplus market and the money gained in someone’s pocket.

      Report Post »  
  • SHOWMESTATEGUY
    Posted on June 30, 2012 at 3:50am

    This is funny. Berkley needing a tank? Come on, what they going to do with it? Rent it out on weekends for the students to smoke pot in?

    Report Post »  
  • vox_populi
    Posted on June 30, 2012 at 2:22am

    Enjoying that militarization of the police, Blazers?

    Report Post » vox_populi  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 4:41am

      All police departments are already paramilitary.

      Report Post » RJJinGadsden  
    • Quiata
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 7:11am

      @VOX Maybe it‘s not so ironic that it’s BERKELEY doing this…. explain away, Vox.

      Report Post »  
  • LameLiberals
    Posted on June 30, 2012 at 1:57am

    Remember the Chinese man standing in front of a tank

    Looks like China’s fascism has come to the USA.

    Report Post »  
  • capitalismrocks
    Posted on June 30, 2012 at 1:21am

    Gotta love how the supposed “campus of peace” needs a vehicle right out of the 2013 Hummer buyers guide!

    Report Post » capitalismrocks  
  • AUsername
    Posted on June 30, 2012 at 12:23am

    put out its tires and have it flip

    Report Post » AUsername  
  • antiprogressive
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 11:59pm

    So WE the taxpayers are funding a $200,000 armored car to stop left wing students who are taught by left wing professors hired by left wing universities…

    Workers paying to contain NON-workers again…

    Since the students are just doing what they have been taught or brainwashed to do -
    Has anyone looked into just shooting the professors?

    Uh
    Sorry,
    Trying to use common sense in America again…

    My bad.

    Report Post »  
  • Leader1776
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 11:45pm

    Nice. Gives new meaning to the peace and love campus !

    Report Post » Leader1776  
  • cristo52
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 11:37pm

    This is so offensive, that the American taxpayers should foot the bill for something that is so over the top it’s ridiculous. If they ever do get to use it in a “combat” situation, they’ll show up 30 minutes late and after everyone is dead.

    Report Post »  
  • ICEDRAGON
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:58pm

    Why does Berkeley get a grant when all they have to do is go to their off shore account and pay cash for it.

    Report Post » ICEDRAGON  
  • CulperGang
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:56pm

    200,000K of OUR tax for a tank? used against what “enemy?”

    Here this is what it is for. Take a good long look at the video.

    http://worldtruth.tv/americas-largest-street-gang-2/

    OUR tax money should not go to arm police as though they were an army going to war

    Report Post » CulperGang  
  • OlefromMN
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:42pm

    I was thinking a squirt gun would be sufficient to handle a Berkeley crowd, but whatever floats their boat. How do liberals fight each other? Let them protest as loud as they want. Nobody around there disagrees with the kool-aid mindset.

    Report Post » OlefromMN  
  • wntsmallgov
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:40pm

    Must be getting concerned over the OWS and the dopers.

    Report Post » wntsmallgov  
  • edotddot
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:31pm

    Oooohhh! I want one! Wonder what colors they come in? Gas mileage probably sucks though.

    Report Post »  
  • Tri-ox
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:26pm

    This one little vehicle won’t make much difference when obama is fired in November and the U.C. Berkeley campus and the entire Bay Area erupts in violent riots, but, it is cute though.

    Report Post » Tri-ox  
    • CatB
      Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:29pm

      Yes .. should have gotten a real TANK … perhaps Army Surplus has a few ;-)

      Report Post »  
    • soybomb315
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 9:58am

      @Tri-ox
      this is happening all over the country and i got news….These weapons are for you, not the liberals. Liberals are perfectly happy with socialist government and no rights. Believers in the constitution are the only people who will be pissed when the economy collapses and martial law is declared across the country

      Report Post » soybomb315  
    • cykonas
      Posted on June 30, 2012 at 1:53pm

      I have to disagree with you Tri-Ox. I think it makes a very big difference. We are talking about a campus police force. I, personally, would still find this news frightening if it was for the police force of a very large American city, but a college campus! Are you kidding?

      Aside from that it’s provided under a grant which almost surely means that each and everyone of us that pays Federal taxes is underwriting the cost of the vehicle. We should all take note of these sorts of arms escalation aimed at the citizenry.

      I hate conspiracy theories but this story makes me reevaluate my position. What possible need would a campus police department have for an armored vehicle? I would be willing to bet that upwards of 90% of the students at UC Berkley don’t own/possess a weapon and the ones that do don’t know how to use them properly.

      Report Post » cykonas  
  • Smokey_Bojangles
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:25pm

    Sounds Like The Hippies and Communist are getting that Big Government they have been asking for……A Police State. Idiots.

    Report Post » Smokey_Bojangles  
  • Mary Just
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:16pm

    The Federal Government is bankrupt to the tune of 10s of trillions of dollars and they can give the progressive liberals $ 200,000 to purchase an armored vehicle for a university campus. My god at what level of corruption will they speak up. Will they ever?

    Report Post »  
  • randy
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:05pm

    Berekely knows the S is going to hit the fan pretty soon

    Report Post » randy  
    • muffythetuffy
      Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:18pm

      I have driven though Berkeley and it is black. Its a lovely ghetto. The COPS are not going to use the armored car against blacks but against whites. When the November 6 riots begin and whites try to defend their neighborhoods against the Hoodies, the COPS will go after the whites. It is starting to happen everywhere.

      Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:31pm

      Yes .. Ft Myers FL is having almost a shooting a day .. .people are asking WTF and it is all one “community” doing the violence … going to be a long hot summer and into fall. Glad I don’t live in a city.

      Report Post »  
  • Master.Debater
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:02pm

    They’re probably worried about us “extreme” tea party folks causing trouble.

    Report Post » Master.Debater  
    • CatB
      Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:32pm

      LOL …Has Pelosi been crying again about our “violence” ;-)

      Report Post »  
  • Psychosis
    Posted on June 29, 2012 at 10:00pm

    SCREW DRIVING UP TO A GROUP OF PROTESTERS

    DRIVE O V E R THEM HIT REVERSE AN DO IT AGAIN

    (required lowercase)

    Report Post » Psychosis  
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