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Comment by defen | Hacker News Reader

San Diego is coated in Navy bases...so the extent to which you could argue that there is a plausible scenario where this thing would be useful is completely obviated by the existing huge military presence. Furthermore, even if it were useful for civilians, why is it in the hands of a school district rather than the police? Who is going to pay for the maintenance? This is completely insane. People are putting their own desire for a "cool" piece of hardware ahead of any rational justification for it relative to its costs.

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The San Diego Unified School District, like most large school districts, universities, even transit systems, in the US has its own police force - this is going to a police department... they have 54 officers, so its larger than many small town departments by a good stretch.

Also, whether there's a military presence in the area or not is irrelevant to their needs - the military doesn't provide tactical support in law enforcement actions.

I'm not taking the position that it's a sane use of resources or a necessity (I don't think it is)...

You can't deploy military assets against the population. It's illegal, since that's how coupes happen. That's why we have the National Guard. Read up on Posse Comitatus. So, it doesn't matter that the Navy is in town.

Oh come on. An armored vehicle loned to the local police in a case of a school shooting is going to undermine the goverment?

Sadly your use of the word government is so sickeningly far from the meaning of a constitutional republic, I weep that yes such things do undermine the government (IE the people of the united states of america and not a small military cabal of police beholden certainly not to its local citizens).

From what I've heard, proximity to camp pendleton results in many authority positions in SD being held by ex-marines. Administrators at the school district probably had a hard time seeing why anyone wouldn't want an MRAP cruising around a high school

> People are putting their own desire for a "cool" piece of hardware ahead of any rational justification for it relative to its costs.

They are being told by one of the most powerful federal agencies (DHS) that if they take it, they are helping defend the country against terrorism (that was the goal of the gov program right?) then offered equipment at massive discounts. I can imagine some small-time local school exec or police officer would love to sit down with the big boys in DHS and feel important, then get to pat themselves on the back for making "their community safer" by simply writing a cheque.

Like many school districts across the nation, the school district has it's own police force: "San Diego Unified School District Police Department". Of course many now want their own SWAT teams. For the children!

I must have completely missed that, thanks! Luckily my first point still stands.

What kind of schools they're running if they need cops so often that they've formed their own force? I'm pretty sure none of my schools in Canada and Finland had even a security guard.

I'd rather it went to a school than the police. The militarisation of police is one of the scariest of the current "first" world country trends.

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