Department of Homeland Security: Special Response Team
April 13th, 2012The vehicles are right out of Team America: World Police.
Via: HongPong:
A relatively monstrous SWAT style truck leads us to a whole new blob of police state developments, busy hands with little to do and a lot of hardware to do it.
I don’t think Arnie will be buying one of these.
Looks pretty beefy, but I’m willing to bet we got some guys coming back from one of the wars who would know how to open that thing like a sardine can.
As I see the evolution of Law Enforcement vehicles toward more and more menacing and predatory looking models I just chuckle to myself.
I’m sure they think they’re just looking cool and maybe putting a little healthy subconscious fear into the population but the reality is they’re slowly building a emotional chasm between themselves and the people.
If they were really interested in good policing, they be driving something that looks like the car Andy Griffith drove. Maybe a modern variant would be something like the PT Cruiser.
Further, such attempts at intimidation are more likely to make some people “bow up” as “lay down” and the people it makes “bow up” are the probably the most dangerous ones anyhow.
It’s not a good idea to drive around in something that makes people automatically want to attack it out of some deep seated drive to protect their loved ones from marauding predators.
Interesting choice of words, Zenc. “The Marauder” is the name of a tactical truck made in South Africa from which these vehicles seem to be derived. The BBC TV program “Top Gear” featured one that they compared to the Hummer.
http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/the-marauder-part-2-series-17-episode-1
Rather than road test them side-by-side, they simply attached something like 4 kilos of C4 to the bottom and blew the Hummer to smithereens. The Maurader survived the same test with nothing more than a blown rear tire, and possibly a dislodged rear driveshaft. They then drove it away from the test crater. So it may be tougher than a sardine can to blow open.
All that aside, I agree that law enforcement is showing a very ugly face to anyone who might oppose TPTB’s agenda. These attack dogs won’t bite the hand that feeds them when non-violent protesters are so easily bludgeoned into submission. For them, it’s simply the path of least resistance.
Feared? Yes. Hated? Yes. Respected? No. And remember, most of them have families living in the same communities as we (The Enemy) live in. When their kids come home from school crying that they are ostracized and the spouses complain that people in the community are shunning them, we will know that the Resistance will win out.
@GaryC
Thanks for the link.
It certainly has impressive damage resistance on the bottom to standard C-4.
I’d hazard a guess that if the same amount of C-4 was shaped around a cone made of a common sheet of copper and fired at the top or sides, the results would be strikingly different…
Yeah, the cops are going to follow the path of least resistance, you’re right. At some point that trajectory is going to change though, I’d have to think long and hard about letting them change sides…
@GaryC
Zenc is right. Shaped charges are used for more controlled explosions, where they need to complete a particular purpose.
An IED may be anything that goes boom, and has a larger than normal target area. It’s the difference between blowing a hole in a safe door, and trying to hit a car somewhere in the vicinity.
The defeat of even the toughest equipment doesn’t necessarily take the heaviest hand. It doesn’t take a nuke to stop a tank. It takes reducing the capacity of essential systems.
Right off, I see a few faults with it, that a planned attack would take advantage of.
The tires are fairly well exposed. The may stop a .22, but would likely be penetrated by a 30-06 or .308.
A 12 gauge slug is known to pierce bullet resistant glass pretty well. It may take a few shots, but just about any place that sells ammo sells them at a reasonable price.
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot6_3.htm
The radiator appears to be covered with a louvered grill. That would protect against most general impact damage (i.e., running a gate, crashing into a passenger vehicle, or etc), and would stop most firearms fire coming from the front. It wouldn’t help coming from an angle under it, roughly 45 degrees, or about 4′ to 6′ in front of it. It would also be prone to overheat damage if the grill were covered. A couple trash bags would probably do it. A few cans of spray foam, and something to release them all at once, would make a nasty sticky curtain across the radiator.
Driving along on an interstate, I somehow picked up a paper towel, that covered half my radiator. That was enough to make it overheat just cruising at 65mph.
The same would apply to spray paint and the windows. It may be a tough vehicle, but it’d be hard to drive if they can’t see where they’re going.
It doesn’t even need to be spray paint. A potato gun style launch device, and a 5 gallon bucket of paint will make all those windows opaque. Well, also any riot gear visor, camera, glasses, goggles etc.
A $1 tool from any autoparts store to pull the valve stem from the tires would do, and has an interesting whistling sound while it does. A box cutter across the valve stem has the same effect, and is quicker.
Since we like to think violent actions, well placed small detonations at the U-joints (either end of the driveshaft) would keep it from moving.
A crane dropping a trash dumpster full of wet sand on it would be pretty catastrophic too. That takes some pretty advanced planning. A large enough bucket of water can be pretty rough too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj3sIFtfb4g
could always call fpsRussia for a RKG-3 hookup
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=df5_1226223621
or if you really feel nasty and wannna be violent you can just deliver pictures of their victims to the families of the officers that live in our communities, supporting the perpetrators of these crimes.
“no man is an island, entire of itself;”
-john donne
I again submit that, regardless of the power, armor, and armament of such vehicles, they are operated by people, most of whom still retain some characteristics of humanity. While these people may not be influenced by public opinion, many of them have families and friends who will not be happy with being shunned and ostracized by the community.
@pessimistic, You’ll probably find that despite the outrage, most people are wimps. They’ll complain, write blogs, and maybe even get a few of them chanting in conspicuous places. When when the shit start flying, they’ll wimp out.
Look at the “Occupy” movement. dozens to thousands of people were there to stand up against [blah, blah, blah]. We’ve all seen the video where one of the protestors was shot in the head. Did the others around him rush the police, and take their weapons? They had numbers on their side. There were more occupy people than police. What happened?
“Oh, so sorry my friends head got in the way of your rubber bullet.”
I can’t say that I can recall any justified violent response to heavy handed police activity. Plenty of people have been arrested for just being there. All you get is noise.
If an armored assault vehicle like shown rolled up on a crowd of 1000 people, the people wouldn’t resist. Heck, you could have a dozen unarmed police officers walk up, and they’d arrest as many as they could, only stopping when they run out of handcuffs and transport to the jail. Sure, there will be complaining in the crowd, but that would be the end of it. They’ll get their badge of honor. A misdemeanor arrest on their record, and bragging rights of “standing up to the man” {sigh}
I have faith in people. I fully believe that they are brave as long as they don’t have to leave their couch, or risk actually getting hurt.