The Militarization of School Police
This comes from KHOU out of Houston Texas
Jonn has posted about the Militarization of Police here and here but it seems that no less than 10 Texas School Districts are using the DOD program to get M16s, body armor, militarily vehicles, ammunition and other goodies. Remember this is the same DOD program that has been so successfully managed by police departments around the country. That was sarcasm by the way.
State records show 10 different school district police departments in Texas received military surplus equipment, including trucks, guns, and armor, through a Department of Defense program. The districts include the following:
Frenship ISD
Texarkana ISD
LaJoya ISD
Linden-Kildare CISD
Aledo ISD
Beaumont ISD
Ector County ISD
San Antonio ISD
Edinburg CISD
Spring Branch ISD
These are K-12 school districts. My question is how did the DOD give this stuff to them? Is there no oversight? Yea I know that they use Sandy Hook, Columbine and others as a reason. But come on. do they really think those tragedies would have been averted if the school district had been armed better than some NG units?
In all, the departments received 64 M16 rifles, 18 M14 rifles, 25 automatic pistols, and magazines capable of holding 4,500 rounds of ammunition as well armored plating, tactical vests, and 15 surplus military vehicles.
Under the program, school police departments received the equipment at little-to-no cost. But not everyone’s thrilled.
“We don’t necessarily believe that this kind of equipment leads to students feeling more secure and safe in schools,” said Brennan Griffin of Texas Appleseed.
The group has studied school police polices for years. Griffin calls news that military rifles have found new homes in Texas schools “concerning.”
“We’ve seen how even much less-lethal devices like tasers and pepper spray get used inappropriately and end up harming children,” he told the I-Team.
Locally, Spring Branch ISD police received 10 automatic pistols and 13 rifles.
Police Chief Brawner says the rifles are available only for use by tactically-trained officers in an emergency. He says when not being used in training, the military weapons are locked in the department’s armory.
But Griffin cites studies showing the typical active-shooter crisis lasts only about 12 minutes.
“It’s hard to see how an officer would be able to gain access to the armory, bring it to the school, assess the situation and somehow use that weapon in the time that a school shooting usually occurs,” said Griffin.
We already have problems with police stationed in schools being used to enforce school policy instead of the law. I can see a situation being escalated by the fact that the systems have this equipment so they feel they must use it. An upset parent or student being confronted by police in Body Armor and M16s instead of a principle or counselor that is willing to sit down and find resolution.
Having school systems own equipmet like this is a very bad idea.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Police
You’ve got to be a one-man fighting force. You’ve got to have enough guns and ammunition and body armor to stay alive. You should be walking around in schools every day in complete tactical equipment, with semi automatic weapons. You can no longer afford to think of yourselves as peace officers. You must think of yourself as soldiers in a war because we’re going to ask you to act like soldiers. – John Giduck, 2007 National Association of School Resources Conference
http://thetruthaboutsocnetlies.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/real-world-consequences-when-john-giduck-trains-police/
sincerely
John “Faker 6” Giduck
Automatic pistols at a school?
HAHAHAHAHA
I still am waiting for a legit reason why any law enforcement agency requires automatic weapons period considering the employment of automatic fire is inherently inaccurate and used to suppress.
I am positive that by ‘automatic’ pistols they mean semi-auto. Common misconception.
I don’t think M16s are semi-auto only. At least they weren’t when I was in.
I had a chuckle reading about the 4,500 round magazine. If my math is correct, that’s over 252 pounds’ worth of ammo.
…assuming one was using 7.62x51mm ammunition.
Dude, you just don’t get it. How are they expected to look tacticool on tv if they aren’t sporting the latest in tacticool gear?
Like this except with an automatic
They wasted precious minutes. Should have poured Brawndo on that wound immediately. It’s got electrolytes.
Da hell are we hiring as DEA agents these days? Fucking dumb ass numb nits who are so “professional” they can’t clear their weapon? Who bring a loaded weapon into a classroom to start with? As GDC referred to above, yep, those will go in the scrap book of “Precious Moments”. All those kids will catch the PTS now. I say they should have immediately filled the wound with the old white school paste in the jar. That shit sticks to everything and…tastes pretty good too. 😀
He tried to sue the DEA for releasing the video.
Judge Jack Shanstrom rejected that claim and dismissed Paige’s U.S. District Court complaint in its entirety. Paige, who worked undercover, claimed that the video’s distribution resulted in him becoming the “target of jokes, derision, ridicule, and disparaging comments” everywhere he went.”
And deservingly so.
The term automatic when used in reference to a pistol means one that will eject spent brass, load a new round and cock with each completed cycle.
It was first used as a marketing to differentiate between revolvers and what we now think of as a semi auto.
The original author was correct in his use of the word however I do not know if he fully understood its meaning or was trying to sensationalize the pistols
I think 19D-Smitty was going for the writer was in for the sensationalism.
I agree with that. Most journalists don’t know the difference between a semi-automatic pistol and an assault flintlock.
Most urinalists these days couldn’t even find their own ass outside at high noon with a spotlight and GPS!!
I am so going to build and assault flint lock now 🙂
Yah, No good will come of this. Just saw in the news where 3 school police officers manhandled a student for talking on her cell phone in Houston. I can’t imagine what their testosterone levels would be if the officers were all armored up and sportin automatic weapons, posin as some sort of Academic Assault Squad. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but the deepest respect for our law enforcement bretheren. They perform a difficult job that most people would refuse to perform, but sometimes fecal matter occurs.
Well they need that stuff what with the school board in Texas constantly trying to teach shit that isn’t actually education it’s more religious programming….when parents object to having some jack wagons revisionist education crammed down their kids cranium the cops will have the firepower to take that parent down…
One civics textbook explained that segregated schools for whites and blacks in the Jim Crow era “sometimes had similar buildings, buses and teachers” – and only “sometimes” were the black schools “lower in quality.” Another spent several paragraphs explaining the legal arguments for allowing prayer in schools and only gave cursory mention to the fact that the Supreme Court has held it unconstitutional.
Affirmative action also takes a beating in some textbooks, including one that shows students two cartoons about aliens arriving in UFOs eager to qualify for benefits under affirmative action programs. Lester called the cartoons “racially insensitive” for implying that recipients of affirmative action are not fully American.
Thirteen rifles locked in the armory in anticipation of an event that will last less than 12 minutes on average. Brilliant.
I might walk the perimeter of that school interviewing the neighbors and work my way outward. Are you qualified by background and experience? Would you allow us to install a secure gun locker in your home? etc. Then I would take every signpost that has a “Gun Free Zone” and I would stencil
FREEout.I can understand school cops having less-lethal options (OC spray, tazer perhaps).
I can understand school cops having a sidearm. I think school cops having M16s is a bit of a stretch.
But M14s? Really? Are some of the cops Designated Marksmen? Are the hallways in these schools long enough to need a 7.62? And don’t try to tell me they need barrier defeating rounds – if there is a barricaded suspect that can’t be defeated with M16s/whatever else the school cops are carrying, the local SWAT should be there anyway with battering rams/shotguns/7.62/whatever else they carry for barricaded suspects.
I’m curious to hear how they justified the M14s and the need for more vehicles than a couple LE sedans.
What I was originally going to write about was police being used by schools to enforce rules. As I was researching that topic a found the above article. I was astounded and thought it was a joke.
I am not by any stretch of the imagination anti police but I do believe that LE as an organization has lost sight of its mission
We now have police in schools and the children are being indoctrinated to ignore the wrongs that are committed against them. school systems believe that children and parents give up constitutional rights when they enroll a child.
school systems need to be reminded that they are part of the government and are on the wrong track. Education is no longer primary or even secondary . Our children are being used as pawns in political power plays
And sadly this is why they aren’t actually being educated so much as indoctrinated….
Fear not, this is Texas public education at work. The rifles go to one school district, the magazines to another, the ammo to a third…
We keep looking at one side of this and that is that the cops are in place to police the students and are walking the halls in full battle rattle. The reality for most of the school districts situations is the protection of students and school property from outside threats. Just one school district in Slammintonio (Northside ISD) “Police Department’s jurisdiction includes all the geographical territory within the boundaries of the District’s 355 square miles, as well as on any property outside the District that is owned, leased or otherwise under the control of the Board of Trustees.” That’s a lot of space. These cops aren’t roaming the hallways locking up kids for skipping class. They’re out actively patrolling within the districts, performing investigations, and doing other things that we would expect city and county cops to do, many times with the other cops. They’re authorized by Texas law, so why not utilize them. Do they need more firepower than some 3rd world countries? Probably not. But for the drug gangs and others that might pose a bigger threat to the safety of the students (kidnapping, hostage situations, attacks on sporting events, etc), knowing that those resources are there provides a pretty good deterrent. Will it stop the lone idiot bent on doing harm within a school? Maybe, maybe not. Having a dedicated police force within the school districts also cuts that advertised 12 minute response time down a lot. In spite of what all I have just said, I’m not always a big fan of having school police. They have their over-reacting, sometimes clueless idiots just like every other organization. I wish they weren’t needed, but the reality is that in today’s world, in the larger cities with gangs, freaks, and even the occasional terroristic fool out there, you need to sometimes visually project a secure environment and protect the kids and the property. This keeps most parents happy, knowing that their kids schools and surrounding areas are rather safe and secure, and it lets bad guys know that the school cops are your typical rent-a-cop. If Uncle wants… Read more »
Edit dammit! Are NOT your typical rent-a-cop.
I’ll disagree just a little bit to inject that having a dedicated resource officer is probably a good idea since that person would have to be well versed on those specific nuances (at least in Tx) that a regular TCLEOSE officer would not necessarily be versed in – http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/ED/htm/ED.25.htm
Yeah…until one testosterone-crazed hothead with an ego the size of Jupiter decides to flex some muscle and be a bully; this under colour of ‘respecting authority’.
This, with legal impunity.
Wasn’t it Thomas Jefferson who pointed out that dangerous liberty is preferable to peaceful slavery?
“We don’t need no education / We don’t need no thought control / No dark sarcasm in the classroom / Teacher, leave those kids alone!”
Pink Floyd
“Another Brick In The Wall”
Another reason to homeschool. Another step toward a police state. Another reason not to trust the state.
Big Brother, here we come.