{"id":7071,"date":"2014-08-26T16:49:46","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T16:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=7071"},"modified":"2014-08-26T16:51:16","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T16:51:16","slug":"why-does-a-florida-county-need-eight-18-million-helicopters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=7071","title":{"rendered":"Why Does a Florida County Need Eight $18 Million Helicopters?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Does a Florida County Need Eight $18 Million Helicopters?<\/h1>\n
by\u00a0Dean Garrison
\nD.C. Clotheline<\/div>\n
\n

\"AIR_AH-64_Apache_Flying_High_lg\"<\/p>\n

Earlier this week we published a link to\u00a0an online database<\/a>\u00a0where you can look to see what kind of\u00a0military equipment\u00a0your local county is stockpiling. Several other publications have linked to\u00a0this database<\/a>\u00a0as well. I heard from a couple of people that it might not be a 100% comprehensive list, but others are discovering that, whether it is comprehensive or not, there is a lot to be learned from looking in that\u00a0database.<\/p>\n

Imagine looking and finding out that your county police bought 8 Apache Helicopters and had done so over three years ago. That is exactly the experience from one person who searched the\u00a0database\u00a0for purchases in\u00a0Brevard County, Florida.<\/p>\n

\"brevard<\/p>\n

$144 Million dollars worth of Apache helicopters and all within a span of about 45 days.<\/p>\n

Wow!<\/p>\n

I find this information particularly interesting because, if you remember, back in April there was a major controversy over our government wanting to confiscate all 192 Apaches that were held by National Guard units around the country. To add insult to injury, the Obama Administration was\u00a0promising 10 new Apaches to Egypt at the same time<\/a>. Here\u2019s an excerpt from Tim Brown\u2019s report in April:<\/p>\n

It has just come to my attention that the\u00a0treasonous Obama administration<\/a>\u00a0just pledged 10 Apache helicopters to Egypt on Tuesday. Where do you suppose those Apaches will come from? RT\u00a0reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Delivery of\u00a0the choppers\u00a0is intended to aid in counterterrorism operations, the Pentagon said in a statement Wednesday, but comes only months after the US first suspended\u00a0military\u00a0aid to Egypt after the country\u2019s interim government began harshly cracking down on dissidents and protesters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe these new helicopters will help the Egyptian government counter extremists who threaten US, Egyptian and Israeli security,\u201d Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Taking Egypt out of the equation, there is still a question that needs to be answered.<\/p>\n

Are\u00a0local police departments<\/a>\u00a0becoming more well\u00a0militarized<\/a>\u00a0than even our\u00a0National Guard<\/a>?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fair question and this trend has been in play for quite some time. Below is a video of an Apache in action.<\/p>\n

Why would Brevard need 8 of these?<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Or for that matter, why would they even need one?<\/p>\n

I should note that I have\u00a0not been able to verify\u00a0the claim\u00a0that those purchases were Apache helicopters. However, there are only so many\u00a018 million dollar helicopters<\/strong>. I have no reason to doubt the story as it was presented.<\/p>\n

If you would like to check out what kind of equipment your county police departments have been purchasing, there is a link to the\u00a0database\u00a0in\u00a0this article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

***Author\u2019s Update 6:00 PM:\u00a0<\/strong>After publishing this article I found some time to do some more\u00a0comparison\u00a0shopping\u00a0and there is no way that I can verify that these are in fact Apache Helicopters. New Apaches cost upwards of $50 Million. In 2011 that number would have been somewhat less and they could have been used equipment so it is still very possible. I found some old numbers earlier\u00a0in the neighborhood\u00a0of 15 million but new 2013\/2014 prices are nowhere near that low. Let\u2019s just take this information on the premise of this county spending 144 million dollars on eight helicopters. Whether they are Apaches or something somewhat less lethal, it is still quite the expenditure for a single county in the span of less than two months. There are some military grade helicopters that can be had new for $18 million even in 2014. So even if they are something different, they are likely something very unorthodox for police to be flying on the taxpayer\u2019s dime. Chances are VERY GOOD that these are military grade helicopters.\u00a0***End of Update***<\/strong><\/p>\n

h\/t\u00a0Mort Amsel<\/a>\u00a0of BIN<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Does a Florida County Need Eight $18 Million Helicopters? by\u00a0Dean Garrison D.C. Clotheline Earlier this week we published a link to\u00a0an online database\u00a0where you can look to see what kind of\u00a0military equipment\u00a0your local county is stockpiling. Several other publications … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}