South Carolina sheriff buys tank to conduct raids

[buckthesystem]

Call me a skeptic but, being from this area, and being a person who watches the local news for hours (it's on from 5-730 here), I do not ever remember hearing about this. So, I read the story. I also googled it. I found references on blog after blog, and on reason, boing boing and that cred site, but nothing in the State newspaper, or anything local... Where is the original story that everyone is reporting from? Not saying there is no tank, but where is the story?

Well, I read Reason Mag online fairly often and I have learned that when they have an article there, their source is in ORANGE and BOLD. This was the source at Reason.com POLICEMAG.

Note that Reason.com only picked it up in Sept, when it was in the magazine in March. I went to the State's website and looked up Leon Lott and "special response team" and was given a few articles from February and March of 2008. I dont have an archive account so I could not read them all, but they had to do with the APC. So, I guess we got the thing early this year. Glad I'm in Lexington County

I wonder why it wasn't on the news. (I know which broadcast you listen to now, only one runs news for hours here....) I think I will shoot them an email. Maybe they didn't notice the story.

Sorry everyone, I really didn't realise that this story was so old and dated from early this year. I thought it was new as I hadn't heard anything about it before. Someone drew it to my attention a few days ago and when I was looking for alternative sources (as I do, usually to check the veracity of a story. I try to find it on at least two other sources, but they don't have to be mainstream news sources as I've found that this doesn't really make any difference because someone will inevitably come out and say "well the NY Times, Guardian, LA times, WorldNetDaily or what ever would say that, wouldn't they? It seems that some people won't believe anything unless it comes out of Fox news or CNN) I found the POLICEMAG site amongst a lot of others. However, I picked on the Reason.com one because it had a a really good picture and the Policemag one was kind of mundane.

I didn't even notice that the article in the magazine was dated in March, sorry, just my carelessness.

But, having said that, I must say that I get the impression that a lot of mainstream new sites or journalists tend to stay away from anything that might make the DHS look even slightly bad. I don't think it is a case of "they didn't notice it" (it's a pretty big story to miss) but a case of "they didn't want to acknowledge it".

[buckthesystem]

Came across more of this story, funnily enough this is dated 2 September, so I guess the story took a few months to properly "get out". But it is interesting in the fact that it has a "religious twist" to it, i.e. this sheriff is trying to use scripture to justify having this tank, and I guess, using it in future too.

It seems that this is a true "doublespeak" situation: (Peace = killing, saving lives = killing). I mean, what else does he think a .50 cal. machine gun will do?

__________________________________________________________________

http://jalopnik.com/5044539/rambo-p-coltra...cal-machine-gun

Sheriff Leon Lott of Richland County, South Carolina has gotten ahold of an M113A2 Armored Personal Carrier (APC) for some serious police work. And though a new APC fitted with a .50-cal belt-fed machine gun is a scary prospect, the Sheriff's department claims it only pays about $2,000 a year to acquire this kind of equipment (though we're not clear if that means the total cost). Perhaps they could replace the old Crown Vics with APCs. Either because he's a religious nut or has a sense of humor, Sheriff Lott is calling the vehicle "The Peacemaker" in reference to Matthew 5:9 because "Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be the children of God." No joke, that's in the press release below. Don't speed through Coumbia, South Carolina. Seriously.

Acutal Press Release

Sheriff Leon Lott unveiled the armored personnel carrier (APC), having the Richland County Sheriff

[LadyRaven]

Call me a skeptic but, being from this area, and being a person who watches the local news for hours (it's on from 5-730 here), I do not ever remember hearing about this. So, I read the story. I also googled it. I found references on blog after blog, and on reason, boing boing and that cred site, but nothing in the State newspaper, or anything local... Where is the original story that everyone is reporting from? Not saying there is no tank, but where is the story?

Well, I read Reason Mag online fairly often and I have learned that when they have an article there, their source is in ORANGE and BOLD. This was the source at Reason.com POLICEMAG.

Note that Reason.com only picked it up in Sept, when it was in the magazine in March. I went to the State's website and looked up Leon Lott and "special response team" and was given a few articles from February and March of 2008. I dont have an archive account so I could not read them all, but they had to do with the APC. So, I guess we got the thing early this year. Glad I'm in Lexington County

I wonder why it wasn't on the news. (I know which broadcast you listen to now, only one runs news for hours here....) I think I will shoot them an email. Maybe they didn't notice the story.

Sorry everyone, I really didn't realise that this story was so old and dated from early this year. I thought it was new as I hadn't heard anything about it before. Someone drew it to my attention a few days ago and when I was looking for alternative sources (as I do, usually to check the veracity of a story. I try to find it on at least two other sources, but they don't have to be mainstream news sources as I've found that this doesn't really make any difference because someone will inevitably come out and say "well the NY Times, Guardian, LA times, WorldNetDaily or what ever would say that, wouldn't they? It seems that some people won't believe anything unless it comes out of Fox news or CNN) I found the POLICEMAG site amongst a lot of others. However, I picked on the Reason.com one because it had a a really good picture and the Policemag one was kind of mundane.

I didn't even notice that the article in the magazine was dated in March, sorry, just my carelessness.

But, having said that, I must say that I get the impression that a lot of mainstream new sites or journalists tend to stay away from anything that might make the DHS look even slightly bad. I don't think it is a case of "they didn't notice it" (it's a pretty big story to miss) but a case of "they didn't want to acknowledge it".

It's not your fault that Reason just picked up on the story. I believe those people have lives too and cant sit about 24-7 grabbing news. At least it was picked up on this year.

As far as the local news channel here, they are fairly good at reporting abuses of power in our local area (google Richland or Lexington county police, and then something to do with chasing criminals who were escaping on foot and running them down with police cars and you should hit the mother lode), but not noticing I wasn't meaning that they didn't notice it at all, but that, since we have a good deal of local news here, it was something that got set aside and passed under the notice of the person that reports on these things.

Since the beginning of the year that person has pretty much been concentrating on scammers in the area that pick on little old ladies, police who run people over and gang violence. The news here is not ultra friendly to Leon Lott, so if it was something that the person who reports on this topic had actually completely noticed, he would have reported on it.

This doesn't mean it happens everywhere, but this particular news channel in this particular area is pretty good about facing issues where law enforcement of any kind does not look good.

[nebula]

Sometimes it takes a big stick to keep the peace.

I really don't see the problem.

[LadyRaven]

Sometimes it takes a big stick to keep the peace.

I really don't see the problem.

While not all police forces are full of corruption and abuses of power, this particular one is very much so. One of the favourite tactics here with petty criminals is to run them over with police cruisers as they attempt to escape the scene of the crime when the SOP is to chase them on foot. We have repeated reports of law enforcement on the take and hooked on drugs, and we wanna give these self same people and APC with a machine gun on top?

[Axxman]

While not all police forces are full of corruption and abuses of power, this particular one is very much so. One of the favourite tactics here with petty criminals is to run them over with police cruisers as they attempt to escape the scene of the crime when the SOP is to chase them on foot. We have repeated reports of law enforcement on the take and hooked on drugs, and we wanna give these self same people and APC with a machine gun on top?

Can I get a reference for that accusation? It would seem that a Sheriff's Dept. that was "full of corruption and abuses" would pull up a hit or two for on-going investigations. After all, we are talking about a Dept. that fired a Deputy for being too friendly. It is also commonplace for Depts. to issue media releases of on-going departmental investigations. In this case, the only media release of that nature is for a Deputy arrested for DUI (with other attached charges) who is being investigated.

I wasn't able to find anything about deputies running people over with police cruisers. Now I'm not saying it NEVER happened...maybe once...but to imply that a Law Enforcement agency is full of corruption and abuses and that they routinely run people over for no reason with no evidence seems just like typical cop bashing. BTW...in my digging I found that Sheriff Lott had been accused of Abuse of Power and the County was sued (and lost) a $150,000 judgement. Thing is...it was one of his own deputies that Lott had arrested for corruption. Because of Lott's investigation though, the Deputy was convicted on Federal weapons charges and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

I'm not saying there is no corruption in the Richmond Sheriffs Dept. but I don't see it. I am VERY pro-law enforcement...but I will stand in line to condemn corruption as is evidenced by my stance on Campeon and Ramos (Border Patrol Agents) and more recently Trooper Wooten of Alaska. It doesn't seem like Sheriff Lott, or his department, has that type of reputation.

[speckles]

Sometimes it takes a big stick to keep the peace.

I really don't see the problem.

Actually there is such a thing as too big of a risk for the level of threat. And there are always practical concerns.

For instance, I mentioned the APC at work, one of our cooks is ex Army. He said he knew the county had one, but said most likely it would never be used because it would be ridiculously expensive to the county.

Those tracks would mess up the streets, Richland County is not countryside, it's not like they will be plowing through the woods and cornering moonshiners or nests of militia nuts. They would be using it on the roads and tearing them up. The fuel for this thing is ... not cheap. And did anyone bother to actually procure the rounds for it? Not all people in government run on logic, especially around here, so who knows?

And if they ever bothered to fire the thing it would, provided it hit the criminal, explode his head, penetrate the door behind him, run through the house and possibly, if its tract housing, into the neighbours house where people who are minding their own business might be shot. That's a lawsuit ready to happen and dead innocent bystanders are heavy money.

What Richland county needs is more training on drug busts and more officers with better armour, not a giant humvee that looks like something out of Starship Troopers and could decimate a suburban area in a matter of seconds.

[speckles]

While not all police forces are full of corruption and abuses of power, this particular one is very much so. One of the favourite tactics here with petty criminals is to run them over with police cruisers as they attempt to escape the scene of the crime when the SOP is to chase them on foot. We have repeated reports of law enforcement on the take and hooked on drugs, and we wanna give these self same people and APC with a machine gun on top?

Can I get a reference for that accusation? It would seem that a Sheriff's Dept. that was "full of corruption and abuses" would pull up a hit or two for on-going investigations. After all, we are talking about a Dept. that fired a Deputy for being too friendly. It is also commonplace for Depts. to issue media releases of on-going departmental investigations. In this case, the only media release of that nature is for a Deputy arrested for DUI (with other attached charges) who is being investigated.

I wasn't able to find anything about deputies running people over with police cruisers. Now I'm not saying it NEVER happened...maybe once...but to imply that a Law Enforcement agency is full of corruption and abuses and that they routinely run people over for no reason with no evidence seems just like typical cop bashing. BTW...in my digging I found that Sheriff Lott had been accused of Abuse of Power and the County was sued (and lost) a $150,000 judgement. Thing is...it was one of his own deputies that Lott had arrested for corruption. Because of Lott's investigation though, the Deputy was convicted on Federal weapons charges and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

I'm not saying there is no corruption in the Richmond Sheriffs Dept. but I don't see it. I am VERY pro-law enforcement...but I will stand in line to condemn corruption as is evidenced by my stance on Campeon and Ramos (Border Patrol Agents) and more recently Trooper Wooten of Alaska. It doesn't seem like Sheriff Lott, or his department, has that type of reputation.

The locals here are pretty frustrated, but it probably isn't on the news much. But it's not all Leon Lott. In fact it is possible that people just mush all the problems in the various county, state and local police into one. And most people here regard Lott as an embarrassment and a laughingstock, but that is not reported on the news.

The dash cams of police mowing over fleeing suspects are not just Richland County, I believe there as a recent case in Aiken county today, or maybe yesterday. There were also state troopers involved in things like this, in fact, I believe the ones we've been watching on TV were almost all state troopers and not Richland County police.

But just because you cant google it or search it on the news pages does not mean it doesn't exist and wasn't reported.

One of my friend's husband used to work for Papa John's Pizza. Just before he quit, one of his colleagues, a driver, was arrested for multiple counts of sexual assault on both minors and grown women at two of the local walmart stores. WISTV for some reason didn't carry the news on its website, though it reported it almost nightly until he was caught on its broadcast. I never saw a thing about it on WLTX, but then there was an article on the website about it. If you google, there is very little about it and at least the last time I tried, you had to know his name. But it was BIG news here. He was going around walmart grabbing people's butts for months (Nothing else, just grabbing butts) and nobody caught him. He was labelled "the walmart groper" locally and had a bit of notoriety until he was caught.

The reason I asked for verification is that sometimes a story is blown up or changed when it makes the national news, I wanted to know the real story.

[LadyRaven]

Ax

If you rrreeeallllly want me to post some stuff about the Richland County police, I could do so. But honestly that wasn't the POINT of my post. The point is that the local news is reporting abuse and corruption locally. There doesn't appear to be any chronic under reporting of embarrassing police events here, so I was surprised that the APC story had passed by unnoticed, at least to my knowledge. And speckles hadn't seen it either.

[LadyRaven]

The locals here are pretty frustrated, but it probably isn't on the news much. But it's not all Leon Lott. In fact it is possible that people just mush all the problems in the various county, state and local police into one. And most people here regard Lott as an embarrassment and a laughingstock, but that is not reported on the news.

The dash cams of police mowing over fleeing suspects are not just Richland County, I believe there as a recent case in Aiken county today, or maybe yesterday. There were also state troopers involved in things like this, in fact, I believe the ones we've been watching on TV were almost all state troopers and not Richland County police.

But just because you cant google it or search it on the news pages does not mean it doesn't exist and wasn't reported.

One of my friend's husband used to work for Papa John's Pizza. Just before he quit, one of his colleagues, a driver, was arrested for multiple counts of sexual assault on both minors and grown women at two of the local walmart stores. WISTV for some reason didn't carry the news on its website, though it reported it almost nightly until he was caught on its broadcast. I never saw a thing about it on WLTX, but then there was an article on the website about it. If you google, there is very little about it and at least the last time I tried, you had to know his name. But it was BIG news here. He was going around walmart grabbing people's butts for months (Nothing else, just grabbing butts) and nobody caught him. He was labelled "the walmart groper" locally and had a bit of notoriety until he was caught.

The reason I asked for verification is that sometimes a story is blown up or changed when it makes the national news, I wanted to know the real story.

It might also be state troopers running people over, I just got the impression it was county since that county rep is always commenting just before the governor does when the stories come out.

YOU know someone who knew BRIAN TERRELL? Talk about a shocker! I worked with him, I visited his family and I'm friends with his wife... Did you know it made national news? when I called my sister living in DC, she knew about it.