I think we had better do something.
Things are unfolding . .
CONTENTS
- COMMENT
- YORK REGIONAL POLICE GET VERSATILE ROLLING FORTRESS, GLOBE & MAIL, MARCH 7, 2011
- METRO VANCOUVER POLICE ANNOUNCE ARRIVAL OF ARMOURED RESCUE VEHICLE, VANCOUVER SUN, MARCH 2, 2011
- SASKATOON, POLICE SHOPPING FOR ARMOURED VEHICLE, STAR PHOENIX, JANUARY 25, 2011
- OTTAWA COPS GET NEW TOY, OTTAWA SUN, MARCH 24, 2010
- MARCH 24, 2010: “ARMOURED VEHICLES ADOPTED BY B.C. RCMP, OTHER CITIES CAN EXPECT TO SEE THE VEHICLES ON THEIR STREETS, TOO”
- READER COMMENTS ON YORK POLICE ARMOURED VEHICLE (MARCH 7, 2011)
- “LIGHT ARMOURED VEHICLES” (LAVs), WHAT ARE THEY? (AMERICAN WEAPONS MANUFACTURER, CAMBLI INTERNATIONAL IN QUEBEC)
- Feb 20, 2011, OSHKOSH DEFENSE (AMERICAN) UNVEILED ITS PROTOTYPE FOR CANADA’S TACTICAL ARMOURED PATROL VEHICLE (TAPV) PROGRAM
- MYTHS FOR PROFIT: CANADA’S ROLE IN INDUSTRIES OF WAR AND PEACE (THANKS TO AMY), + “FROM MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO PERMANENT STATE OF WAR” (U.S.) + REPLY FROM WILLIAM HARTUNG “PROPHETS OF WAR: LOCKHEED MARTIN AND THE MAKING OF THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX”.
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1. COMMENT
Compare:
- the report on the armoured vehicle (AV) for Vancouver from last year (item #5) and
- the information on the sales of these “rolling fortresses” in Item #7 (LAVs, What are They?”).
- the announcement March 2 this year, another armoured vehicle for Vancouver (item 3)
When I compare, I would say that last year’s Vancouver report is not truthful. “Thou doth protest too much.” They went to great lengths to downplay the LAV (Light Armoured Vehicle) – – it was just “gathering dust and out of service”, so what the heck, shrug, shrug, we just got it for free.
The text from item #7 (LAVs what are they?) says: “Vancouver Police Department – 1 (LAV) delivered in 2010[2] from tender after 2008[3] ” Hardly sounds like “gathering dust and out of service”. (I wrote that sentence before finding out today, thanks to Jennifer, that the Vancouver Police have just added another LAV to their arsenal. This time it’s just a “rescue” vehicle. Words to comfort us, words used as propaganda.)
Item #7: The Comments from Readers (Globe & Mail) on the York Police purchase of an LAV cut to the core of the matter. I cannot find a similar out-pouring of resistance in Vancouver?
In 2010 I said that we needed to be pre-emptive, to stop the LAVs from happening in other cities. We need a Wiki leaks . . . Do your City Police have an LAV on order? (“Other cities can expect to see the armoured vehicles on their streets, too”.) I just found out today that the Saskatoon City Police, too, plan to spend our tax dollars on an LAV.
The “defense” contractors exist ONLY because of our tax dollars. It is abundantly clear: they have set up in Canada, they produce armoured vehicles for war – – but there is another lucrative market. Us.
They can sell their war machinery to our municipalities and police organizations. HOWEVER, they have to create an enemy to go along with the war weapons. Otherwise, there is no market. Looks like we’ve become the enemy. Else why would they need these LAVs in our cities?
The greater the inequities in the society, the greater the stresses because of failing economic conditions (brought on because we are not transitioning off fossil fuels), stresses from the depletion of water supplies, inequity and injustice when CEOs think they are worth from $3 million to $65 million when they aren’t even the ones that do the work – – the MORE money we spend on very expensive armoured vehicles, the less money there is to invest in programmes that will actually help people. That is the way to “security”. Instead, we are creating an economy based on violence. By allowing our tax and resource revenues to be spent on the war industry, we are creating our own civil unrest and un-doing. Our own massive debt, same as in the U.S. Our own tax dollars are used against us as you see with the rolling out of armoured vehicles across the country, if we don’t stop this.
My Income Tax Installments are due March 15 and April 15. As I did last year, I will deduct the portion that represents military spending by the Government. See Conscience Canada. It is now not so much a matter of conscience, as it is a matter of survival of this country. I will also be working my buns off to help get as much resistance to Lockheed Martin as possible in the U.K. (March 27) and then in the Canadian census in May. Stop the authors of destruction wherever the opportunity exists.
These are troubling and urgent times. Rally the trooops!! /Sandra
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2. YORK REGIONAL POLICE GET VERSATILE ROLLING FORTRESS, GLOBE & MAIL, MARCH 7, 2011
TIMOTHY APPLEBY
Globe and Mail Update
Published Monday, Mar. 07, 2011 6:00AM EST; Last updated Monday, Mar. 07, 2011 6:04AM EST
Built for comfort it is not. Sleekly elegant? Negative. Fuel-efficient? Forget about it.
But when members of the York Regional Police (YRP) swat squad climb into their new armoured truck and rumble noisily to the scene of a gun call or a risky arrest, what they will have is a versatile, rolling fortress.
More related to this story Police keep range of equipment acquired for G20 summit
The Thunder 1, as it was named by its Quebec manufacturer, Cambli International of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, was custom-designed for YRP (York Regional Police), which until December did not have such a vehicle at all – the only police service in the Greater Toronto Area without one.
And with a price tag of $340,000, it was not inexpensive. But it was $10,000 cheaper than the more widely deployed BearCat armoured vehicles, made by Massachusetts-based Lenco Industries Inc., popular with U.S. police, and it has a larger capacity, with 10 seats rather than eight. Staff Sergeant Gregory Harper, who commands York’s 24-officer Emergency Response Unit, reckons it was a bargain.
The Thunder 1 is technically unique. Police in Vancouver have a similar vehicle, but because much of York Region is rural, calling for an off-road capability, the tires on this truck are slightly bigger, providing more clearance. The Vancouver truck also has dual rear axles, and it is black rather than grey.
If the boxy shape looks familiarly old-fashioned, that’s because Cambli’s chief line of production involves Brinks trucks, which have a basic design that has hardly altered in decades.
The truck was a parting gift from former York police chief Armand La Barge, who retired the same month the long-sought-after Thunder 1 arrived. Its acquisition gathered pace two years ago, when YRP had to call in the Toronto police tactical squad to handle a distraught man threatening to detonate a car bomb on Highway 400.
Inside the Thunder 1, it’s a surprisingly smooth ride.
It’s been deployed just a handful of times so far, most recently on Friday when it was dispatched to aid in the arrest in Richmond Hill of a man wanted for armed robbery.
“Its sole purpose is the protection of our officers and being able to move them into a dangerous environment,” Staff Sergeant Harper said. “It was a worthwhile investment. Very worthwhile.”
WHAT YOU GET
So what do you get for $340,000 when you buy a Thunder 1? Primarily a vehicle that affords state-of-the-art security for the police inside it.
The chassis and power train are built by International Truck and Engine Corp., and resemble the design of the big dump trucks the company makes: A Maxx Force DT, 285 HP Turbo engine; an Allison 3500 EVS transmission; and a 163-inch wheel base. It weighs more than 15 tonnes, and it has a top speed of about 130 km/h.
Its payload is a little over three tonnes, and its fuel tank holds 50 U.S. gallons.
The console is much the same as a commercial truck. But there the similarities cease. As with some small military planes, the 10 seats comprise two at the front, two flip-up seats facing forward, and three on each side in the truck’s rear facing each other.
The truck carries no weapons, but it has 12 gun ports for the heavily armed police inside who do – five on each side and two at the rear.
The precise thickness of the reinforced steel and steel glass that protect occupants against any ballistic threat is not something police are anxious to disclose. But thick it is.
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3. METRO VANCOUVER POLICE ANNOUNCE ARRIVAL OF ARMOURED RESCUE VEHICLE, VANCOUVER SUN, MARCH 2, 2011
http://www.vancouversun.com/Metro+Vancouver+police+announce+arrival+armoured+rescue+vehicle/4373207/story.html (Click on the news link. Look at the picture. ” … the rescue vehicle will be used to help extract people from life threatening circumstances”. Please explain. The picture is of an armoured vehicle, like the ones used in war zones.)
Abbotsford Times March 2, 2011 Comments (1)
The new armoured rescue vehicle purchased for the Municipal Integrated Emergency Response Team will enter service this week.
Photograph by: APD handout, for the TIMES (Click on the news link. Look at the picture.
It’s big, and it’s coming to Metro Vancouver.
Abbotsford police have announced that the armoured rescue vehicle purchased for the Municipal Integrated Response Team (MIERT) will enter service this week.
Looking more like a tank, the rescue vehicle will be used to help extract people from life threatening circumstances, or when the police and public may be in danger due to the presence of weapons.
Civic and Police leaders from Abbotsford, Delta, New Westminster and Port Moody came together to purchase the new vehicle.
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4. SASKATOON, POLICE SHOPPING FOR ARMOURED VEHICLE, STAR PHOENIX, JANUARY 25, 2011
(July 2011: web address no longer valid. http://www.leaderpost.com/news/todays-paper/Police+shopping+armoured+vehicle/4161626/story.html )
By David Hutton, Saskatchewan News Network; Postmedia News, January 25, 2011
– The Saskatoon Police Service is shopping for a bulletproof armoured rescue vehicle (ARV) to beef up its fleet.
The roughly $350,000 military-styled vehicle would be used in critical situations involving firearms to protect officers, police officials say.
“We have to weigh the safety of our officers and safety of citizens and that’s what we’re trying to have the vehicles for,” said police Chief Clive Weighill. “We’re doing more high-risk warrant executions where there are firearms involved.”
As the drug trade intensifies in Saskatoon due in part to the lure of the strong economy, police officers are coming across more firearms when they execute search warrants on drug houses, Weighill said.
The police service has been socking away capital money for five years to fund an ARV, which would be used by the emergency response team, he said.
A request for companies which manufacture ARVs to submit bids has been advertised and police hope to have the vehicle by the end of 2011. ARVs range in price from $325,000 to $375,000.
“It sounds like a lot of money but a (fully outfitted) patrol car is $60,000,” Weighill said.
“Everything we buy now seems to be expenive.”
Other cities have used ARVs for high-risk situations such as search and arrest warrants, hostage-taking situations, escorting high-risk prisoners, responding to emergencies at the airport and providing cover in the event police and paramedics need to rescue people from dangerous situations.
The focus in Saskatoon will be on potentially lethal arrest warrants, standoffs and conflicts involving a suspect with a high-calibre weapon, Weighill said. The vehicle, which can typically hold 10 people, can get officers close to or citizens out of risky situations safely.
There have been times when members of the emergency response team have had to hold up steel plates over the windows of a police SUV to protect themselves from potential fire, Weighill said.
“This is really about the safety of our officers,” he said.
The expected lifetime of the ARV is 10 to 15 years and it would be only be used during emergencies, Weighill said.
Ottawa police recently purchased the BearCat, which is similar to what the U.S State Department uses in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, and is used by U.S. Marines for perimeter protection at nuclear submarine bases. The three-metre tall vehicle has military-grade steel armour, bulletproof windows, run-flat tires, a 350-horsepower, twin turbocharged diesel engine and other classified items.
© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post
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5. OTTAWA COPS GET NEW TOY, OTTAWA SUN, MARCH 24, 2010
Friday, March 11, 2011
Force will put armored car to good use: Chief
By DOUG HEMPSTEAD, Ottawa Sun
Last Updated: March 24, 2010 2:35pm
Ottawa Police unveiled their new Lenco BearCat armoured vehicle Wednesday.
Ottawa Police say the city will definitely get its money’s worth out of its new $365,000 armoured vehicle.
“Probably we’ll use it 25 to 50 times a year,” said Chief Vern White, who indicated the vehicle — a Lenco Bearcat — was custom designed for Ottawa Police.
He suggested the vehicle represents a “growing up” of the local force, which previously has simply borrowed a similar vehicle from the RCMP when needed.
“The largest police services in the country have purchased vehicles similar to this and for the same purpose. We’ve been going on calls and hoping that we can get to the call and get close enough without being put under fire, and many times find ourselves in high-risk situations,” said White.
To that end, specifically, the Bearcat is a bullet-proof all-terrain vehicle which will be used for gun calls, hostage-takings, injured people, officer rescues and high-risk warrants.
The American-made vehicle ended up costing nearly $15,000 more than originally thought. Last fall the police board approved the spending of $341,147.
Tactical officer Const. Jim Hutchins was part of the group who helped decide exactly what kind of options and accessories the vehicle needed for it to be best suited for use in Ottawa.
“We actually canvassed services across the country of comparable size, I believe there were 27 services we looked at,” Hutchins said.
Looking over Ottawa Police’s own numbers, he said the vehicle could have been used in 30% of the tactical calls over the past three years.
The vehicle doesn’t require a special licence to drive — something tactical officer, acting Staff Sgt. Jeff Kilcollins said his team members are looking forward to doing.
“This is a Cadillac, quite frankly,” said Kilcollins. “This is a very well-built and well-researched vehicle.”
The 10-ton Bearcat is too big and heavy to be parked at police headquarters on Elgin St. and although it was unveiled to the media at the new west-end headquarters, the Bearcat will be stored in a central location.
It won’t be used for regular patrols.
doug.hempstead at sunmedia.ca
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6. MARCH 24, 2010: “ARMOURED VEHICLES ADOPTED BY B.C. RCMP, OTHER CITIES CAN EXPECT TO SEE THE VEHICLES ON THEIR STREETS, TOO”
The article is at: http://news.ca.msn.com/local/britishcolumbia/article.aspx?cp-documentid=23717966
From email Mar 24, 2010:
Will you contact your Mayor and Council and the heads of your RCMP and police, etc. to advise that we do not want armoured vehicles in our cities? Nor do we need them. … (for full text, click on 2010-03-24 Armoured vehicles adopted by B.C. RCMP. Other cities can expect to see them, too. )
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7. READER COMMENTS ON YORK POLICE ARMOURED VEHICLE (MARCH 7, 2011)
Tragically Quipped 6:19 AM on March 7, 2011
This is a crowd control vehicle, not something to use for “risky arrests.”
Afraid we’ll take to the streets?
- 7:31 AM on March 7, 2011
My Gawd! What are we coming to in Canada!
I have not seen anything this crazy since the LA cops introduced an Urban Assault Vehicle.
What is terrifying about this is not the vehicle as much as the mentality, the culture of raw brutality, this equipment represents.
Canadians need to reassess our personal security and ask: ‘Is the enemy within?’
- Caradoc 8:03 AM on March 7, 2011
I went to high school with a guy who’s now a detective with the York Regional Police. He was, and probably still is, hands down the most bullying, intolerant, dim-witted dufus one could imagine. Anyone who has seen ‘Clockwork Orange’ where the former gang punks (‘droogs’) become police would understand completely.
My dad was a cop, and he was the first to say ‘the ones you really have to watch are the cops’. Every division or station is a potential gang clubhouse.
- Stan Duptall 7:21 AM on March 7, 2011
Libya, yes.
York Region, no.
Call it the UOVTRIV.
Useless Over The Top Intimidation Vehicle
- Teapots 7:41 AM on March 7, 2011
So that’s what a gravy train looks like.
- gb_eh 6:12 AM on March 7, 2011
What a complete waste of tax payer money… didn’t realize that York region was a strong hold of criminals. I don’t remember hearing about swat team being used heavily in that area?
- Gardiner Westbound 6:32 AM on March 7, 2011
Toys for boys!
- Mark Shore 8:21 AM on March 7, 2011
As far as I can recall, there has never been a past incident in York, the GTA, or anywhere in Ontario where such vehicle was actually required.
Just one more example of the increased militarization of Canadian police forces (the US has gone a lot farther down that road), and the way our paid employees use our money to distance themselves from – and intimidate – the public they nominally serve.
- Astutent 7:12 AM on March 7, 2011
Let’s see…
The O.P.P. is the highest paid entity in Canada.
RCMP officers make ~$80,000/year plus benefits by year 3.
Officers get away with gross abuses (taser deaths, wrongful arrests, beatings, etc.) because the SIU is useless.
Due to recent legislation, police are now able to pull you over for absolutely no valid reason (“to confirm your eligibility to drive”)
The G20 catastrophe speaks for itself.
And now this.
People of Canada, welcome to the Police State.
- SlaterSmith1 7:53 AM on March 7, 2011
When have we ever demonstrated a need for something like this?
- SnapDeadRythym 7:09 AM on March 7, 2011
At some point the empathy shifts from victim to criminal. Just a general heads up.
- G Allen 6:57 AM on March 7, 2011
Sure, why not. Police forces in Canada aren’t expected to use budget money responsibly. They can do whatever they want in the name of public safety. Crime rate going down? Let’s ramp up budgets because no one can challenge us.
Sadly, we are not so different from many of those countries we deride when we read their news.
- Ab1 6:50 AM on March 7, 2011
Can everyone say Police State?
- JohnD 6:36 AM on March 7, 2011
Welcome to the new South Africa…. I can’t believe that we are spending precious tax dollars on these vehicles. We don’t need them… but if we build them, they will be used, and therefore create situations that will justify their presence.
This is a CON dream if I ever saw one. Oh Canada.
- Masdar 8:01 AM on March 7, 2011
Perhaps the police forces will need this rolling tank, with gun ports, for use in the next G20 summit to control the peaceful protesters.
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8. “LIGHT ARMOURED VEHICLES” (LAVs), WHAT ARE THEY? (AMERICAN WEAPONS MANUFACTURER, CAMBLI INTERNATIONAL IN QUEBEC)
LAVs are war machinery. You will see them in pictures of war AND you see them in pictures of police-state crack-downs on citizens. Watch for them in newscasts – – you will have seen them.
The Lockheed Martin INDEX talks about the Canada First Defence Strategy and how the Canadian economy is being transformed into one that, like the American, is dependent upon making enemies in order to justify war. Now we have this (another) American company situated in Canada, Cambli International, selling LAVs to municipal police forces in Canada . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambli_International_Thunder_1
Cambli International Thunder 1 is an armoured police tactical vehicle built by Cambli International Incorporated of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.
The 4 X 4 wheeled light armoured vehicle (LAV) is based on the company’s armoured car platform using International 7400 SFA chassis. Armour plated body and bullet-proof glass gives the vehicle ballistic protection from high calibre weapons.[1]
The vehicle is being marketed to civilian agencies or police forces in Canada and the United States. Thunder 1 targets law enforcement agencies looking for a cheaper alternative for armoured rescue vehicles.
So far the vehicle has been sold to one user: (INSERT: they then list two)
Vancouver Police Department – 1 delivered in 2010[2] from tender after 2008[3]
York Region Police – 1 delivered in 2011[4]
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9. Feb 20, 2011, OSHKOSH DEFENSE (AMERICAN) UNVEILED ITS PROTOTYPE FOR CANADA’S TACTICAL ARMOURED PATROL VEHICLE (TAPV) PROGRAM
http://defense-update.com/wp/20110220_oshkosh-tapv.html
Oshkosh Defense unveiled its prototype for Canada’s Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicle (TAPV) program, as well as the company’s plans to work with its subsidiary, London Machinery, Inc. (LMI), to leverage that company’s new facility in London, Ontario, in pursuit of Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) vehicle programs.
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10. MYTHS FOR PROFIT: CANADA’S ROLE IN INDUSTRIES OF WAR AND PEACE (THANKS TO AMY), + “FROM MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO PERMANENT STATE OF WAR” (U.S.) + REPLY FROM WILLIAM HARTUNG “PROPHETS OF WAR: LOCKHEED MARTIN AND THE MAKING OF THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX”.
Please click on MYTHS FOR PROFIT . There is important background information related to the rolling out of these armoured vehicles across Canada.