The Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter-Attack Truck has come up again as a topic of discussion in Keene. The City Council recently voted to table a proposal by Terry Clark to return the BEARCAT. The following letter has been published by the Keene Sentinel as a letter to the editor, and has also been submitted to the City Council as an official correspondence, and should be on the agenda for the next Council meeting (Sept 18).
In the wake of the protests in Ferguson, Mo., the federal government has begun reconsidering the programs that give away military equipment to local law-enforcement. Sen. Claire McCaskill said police responses like that in Ferguson have “become the problem instead of the solution.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Hank Johnson said he will introduce federal legislation to reverse police militarization, and Sen. Carl Levin said the Senate Armed Services Committee will review the program to determine if the Defense Department’s surplus equipment is being used as intended.
I am greatly disappointed in the Keene City Council. On Sept. 4, the council had the opportunity to join Davis, Calif., in returning militarized equipment. Last week, the City Council of Davis voted to return a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle it received from the Pentagon as part of the 1033 program.
Terry Clark, who had been vocally opposed to Keene’s acceptance of the Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter-Attack Truck, wrote a correspondence to the mayor and council asking “the City of Keene (to) withdraw from the Homeland Security Grant” and return the “BearCat, to the appropriate government agency.”
Keene’s BearCat, which is painted in military colors, has only been used on a handful of occasions by Keene’s police, who now dress in black. None of these uses has been in line with the reasons listed in the application for this military equipment.
During the council meeting, Mayor Kendall Lane suggested that the council take the correspondence as informational. A vote to override this motion was only supported by Councilors Chadbourne, Clark and Hague.
The council had a chance to do the right thing, however 12 of the councilors chose to follow the recommendation of the mayor.
