LAUSD owns three grenade launchers and a tank

[msmerymac]

How could this possibly go wrong?!


laist.com/2014/09/15/lausd_has_a_tank_built_for_war.php


LAUSD has confirmed that they have in their possession three grenade launchers and a tank that were originally created for warfare.


This comes on the heels of a site called MuckRock releasing this information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) last week. (Muck Rock is a national organization that helps people get government records through FOIA and encourages journalists to write about the information.) The L.A. Times reported that the school district received the military equipment through Pentagon’s 1033 program, which gives surplus military items to law enforcement programs—and that includes the law enforcement departments of Ferguson as well as LAUSD's police department.


Though the L.A. Daily News reported that the weapons were never used, the 14-ton, mine resistant and ambush proof (MRAP) vehicle that LAUSD received in June was created for fighting insurgents in Iraq. LAUSD Police Chief Steven Zipperman said the MRAP would be helpful in the case of a large-scale attack, where they would need to save students in case the LAPD and LASD couldn't get to them in time. The San Diego Unified School District's Police Department also received a MRAP.


As for the three grenade launchers that were gifted to the school shortly after 9-11 (because schools are exactly like the setting for films like Predator), they were originally taken by the military to fight in Vietnam. Zipperman told the Daily News that they wouldn't use them to actually shoot grenades, but merely to send out a hail of rubber bullets to disperse crowds if there was any unrest. He told Times that they would never use them against the students.


There's also the 61 full assault M16 rifles the LAUSD police department got that they converted into semi-automatic weapons. Zipperman told the Times that those would be kept in locked compartments in patrol cars, and would be used in cases similar to a mass shooting, like Columbine. Similarly, a school board approved for police at a Compton school to carry semi-automatic AR-15 rifles in the trunks of their patrol cars in the school year that started in August.

“When I hear law enforcement agencies are collecting military weaponry, it makes me think they’re preparing for a war on the streets with young people,” Patrisse Marie Cullors-Brignac, director of nonprofit group Dignity and Power Now, told the Daily News.

[Deleted]

I'm going to pretend these people are just massive Red Dawn fans who anticipate having to arm the Wolverines against the invading Soviets/N Koreans.

It is almost bedtime after all and I'd like to sleep.

[meshaliuknits]

I've gone to some hood ass schools but at no point did I look around and think "you know what we need? Grenade launchers."

Why are school districts even eligible for this shit?

Sent from my EVO

[Velar Fricative]

Great. More ammunition (no pun intended) for the Second Amendment extremists. Nothing can possibly go wrong.

[heyjude]

Amurica. Fuck yeah!

[nsl]

My school is right on the border with a very violent city in Mexico. As in, our shot put team can land projectiles there if they're throwing from the far end of our field. At no point have I ever thought, "Hey, let's give campus security the tools to take down a cartel if they wanted to!"

I know our security guards. Good at busting kids for pot and truancy? Sure. Do they possess great judgment? Eh. Do I want them anywhere near tanks and grenade launchers? No. Really no.

[pinkdutchtulips]

Sept 15, 2014 20:43:53 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

I've gone to some hood ass schools but at no point did I look around and think "you know what we need? Grenade launchers."

Why are school districts even eligible for this shit?

Sent from my EVO

my mom student taught in Watts 5-6 years after the riots. LAUSD didn't have weapons but they did give out 'combat pay' to teachers both tenured and student.

[alleinesein]

Sept 15, 2014 23:34:26 GMT -5 nsl said:

My school is right on the border with a very violent city in Mexico. As in, our shot put team can land projectiles there if they're throwing from the far end of our field. At no point have I ever thought, "Hey, let's give campus security the tools to take down a cartel if they wanted to!"

I know our security guards. Good at busting kids for pot and truancy? Sure. Do they possess great judgment? Eh. Do I want them anywhere near tanks and grenade launchers? No. Really no.

TJ or Ciudad Juarez??

[secretlyevil]

::looks around for Onion link::

I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that a SCHOOL has grenade launchers. I have yet to imagine a scenario (except Red Dawn) where this is necessary.

[downtoearth]

Sept 15, 2014 23:53:59 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

Sept 15, 2014 20:43:53 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

I've gone to some hood ass schools but at no point did I look around and think "you know what we need? Grenade launchers."

Why are school districts even eligible for this shit?

Sent from my EVO

my mom student taught in Watts 5-6 years after the riots. LAUSD didn't have weapons but they did give out 'combat pay' to teachers both tenured and student.

One of my college friends went to school in LA during the riots and was locked in her school for 2 days during the riots - they would drop food into the courtyard from helicopters. So weird to think that was the middle of LA and practically a war zone in 1992. That being said, I still don't think arming LA schools is an answer or a good idea.

[nsl]

Sept 16, 2014 4:00:20 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

Sept 15, 2014 23:34:26 GMT -5 nsl said:

My school is right on the border with a very violent city in Mexico. As in, our shot put team can land projectiles there if they're throwing from the far end of our field. At no point have I ever thought, "Hey, let's give campus security the tools to take down a cartel if they wanted to!"

I know our security guards. Good at busting kids for pot and truancy? Sure. Do they possess great judgment? Eh. Do I want them anywhere near tanks and grenade launchers? No. Really no.

TJ or Ciudad Juarez??

Juarez.  Even at the height of the cartel violence from 2009-2011 I still wouldn't have thought this was a good idea.

[wawa]

Sept 16, 2014 5:39:28 GMT -5 secretlyevil said:

::looks around for Onion link::

I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that a SCHOOL has grenade launchers. I have yet to imagine a scenario (except Red Dawn) where this is necessary.

zombies.  duh.

I'm trying to come up with a reason that my IL's HOA should apply for some military gear.  My current zombie survival plan involves booking it over to their place, getting in our little boat, and heading down and stealing one of the big sailboats out of the marina down the creek.  If there are also handy grenade launchers I'd take some of those too.

Maybe if the school next to my house had an MRAP we could steal that and then drive it to the IL's...that's a plan. 

SILVER LINING PEOPLE!
(sorry, I really can't respond to these articles seriously because if I do I may throw my computer)

side note...can we please stop calling them tanks?  They aren't tanks.  They're MRAPs.  Armored vehicles is not inaccurate AFAIK if you want something non acronymy.  It's not a difference that warrants less outrage, but just a terminology difference that is giving me a twitch.  I'm having flashbacks to our AR-15 discussion days.

tank


mrap

[msmerymac]

I really don't think a grenade launcher would have helped a Columbine-like situation. And I've never heard anyone mention anything like that until now.

But then, the NRA thinks private citizens should be able to keep grenade launchers in their yard if they want to. You know, for sport and self-defense.