In yet another example of a bureaucratic waste of taxpayer dollars, the Department of Homeland Security decided to reward the University of California Berkeley Police Department (UCPD) with a $200,000 grant that was used to purchase an “Armored Response Counter Attack Truck.” CampusReform.org has the details on this expensive new purchase:
The eight-ton vehicle, commonly referred to as a "Bearcat," is used by U.S. troops on the battlefield and is often equipped with a rotating roof hatch, powered turrets, gun ports, a battering ram, and a weapon system used to remotely engage a target with lethal force.
Why exactly does a college need such a powerful vehicle? Good question.
Tejada said that although he does know of any incident in the university's 144-year history in which such a vehicle would have saved a life, the police department would have have liked to deploy it in an incident last year when they mistakenly believed a man had an AK-47 assault rifle.
University of Virginia Professor Dewey Cornell, an expert in violence prevention and school safety, told Campus Reform on Friday that with approximately 4800 four-year colleges in the U.S., and an average of 10 homicides per year on college campuses, the average college can expect a homicide about once every 480 years.
When a college is buying itself an eight-ton military vehicle, something has gone terribly wrong with the Department of Homeland Security’s grant program. If there is truly not a better way to spend this particular grant money, DHS could always, well, not spend it.
This post was authored by Townhall editorial intern, Kyle Bonnell.
