Wednesday 25 July 2012

Cairns gets super Police car for terrorists, just what we need. Not.

Barron River MP Michael Trout welcomes the arrival of the new police armoured police in Cairns.

A paranoid and fear-obsessed Federal Government has just purchased an armoured police vehicle for Cairns and Far North Queensland.

Equipped for riot police, tear gas and other anti-social paraphernalia, it has local leaders excited that we could host important events here.

The vehicle is a Lenco BearCat, a wheeled armored personnel carrier used by military and police forces, mainly in the USA. The 15-ton vehicle cost around $400,000. "BearCat" gets its name from Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck.

It's a Ford F-550 6lt turbo-­diesel, 4-speed auto, with 1.5" thick steel armored bodywork with ballistic glass capable of multi-hits, blast-resistant floors, specially designed gunports, roof hatches and turret. There are modifications such as thermal cameras and spot lights.

This is only the second of its kind in Queensland.

"The state of the art vehicle is designed specifically for high-risk police situations.," Barron River MP Michael Trout said. "The BearCat is bullet and blast resistant and can also help safely rescue hostages or injured personnel in challenging situations."

Former policeman and Katter Party candidate for Cairns, Darren Hunt, says the new vehicle is awesome.

"The capabilities it has are amazing. We have the only SERT (Special Emergency Response Team) outside Brisbane and the amount of VIP's we have holidaying up here is huge," Darren Hunt says. "It makes sense to base it here."

However he quipped that it will get as much use as an ashtray on a motorcycle.

I suspect there will not be much change out of a million dollars for this beast, which belongs on the streets of Washington DC, not the Nard in Cairns.

9 comments:

Bryan Law said...

Where's my mattock?

jim cavill said...

mmm nail spikes might be good

Wendy Davie said...

Are things going to get so bad under the new man govt that we are going to riot in the streets?

spangled lady said...

When I saw this monster thing on Tv I thought it had to be a joke. Is this a warning about our future in FNQ? Think Syria/Egypt/Afghanistan/Iraq -that is where this monstrosity belongs, not in Cairns. Big Boys Toys have become ridiculous! Can you imagine this ghastly (and very expensive)thing rumbling thru the Streets of any suburb saving us from the housebreakers and car shifters or does it have a more sinister purpose? Mr King- How come you have money for this unnecessary and offensive monster? Why not try to persuade your Premier to put money towards the Disability Insurance Scheme instead? Madness prevails in Paradise.

Spangled Lady said...

Mike- have just reread your article and I see that you state that this is a Fed Govt purchase! If that is the case why was this not unveiled by our local Fed member? Interesting point.

Russ Parker said...

Bryan: Best of luck.

Jim: I don't think they would trouble it too much.

Wendy: No it's not designed to solve riots.

Spangled Lady: It wasn't funded by the state government. If you watched or read any of the main stream media stories you would have seen Senator, the honourable Joe Ludwig performing the handover to the QPS on behalf of the federal government.

Mike: I don't see the tear gas cannisters or other anti-social paraphernalia but perhaps I'm not looking hard enough.

Now I think everyone needs to settle down and stop castigating the Premier or whoever!

The vehicle was actually funded by the Federal government and was in the pipeline well before the state elections.

It has the capability to enter an area whilst under fire and safely extract a wounded person. Those aren't the sort of workplace health and safety conditions that the good men and women of the Queensland Ambulance Service would be too comfortable with I guess. If you think that kind of scenario could never play out in Far North Qld then I suppose I'd be wasting my time trying to convince you otherwise.

Now, as a bit of an exercise let's just look at a completely hypothetical scenario. Let's just say that a lone gunmen wanders into a popular local tourist attraction, pulls a high powered semi automatic military style rifle out of his bag and starts indiscriminitely shooting people.

Now think about how you would respond to that situation. How do you get personnel in there to stop him. Suddenly a $400K purpose built vehicle starts to sound like a pretty good investment I'd suggest.

But then again that sort of a situation could never occur in Australia - could it?

I think that someone famous once said something like, "The price of peace is eternal vigilance"

Cheers.

Another Mike said...

I saw our $400,000 protest suppression vehicle on Sheridan St today... All that money and it's still left hand drive?

yk said...

It simply defies belief. A vehicle of this type would not be out of place in Iraq or Syria. Apart from the initial cost of the thing what are the ongoing costs - training to operate it and what about the service costs. I bet it wont be done at Pacific Toyota. And then there are the spare parts to keep it going.
The whole thing seems like an overkill and I'm sure the money could have been gainfully spent.

CBD Warrior said...

Bryan Law must be exploding as his LNP recommended mates take down all his sacred cows. City Place is a goner, they're giving government dosh to a hotel, and they're gearing up Yank style to stifle any dissent. Thanks for the tip, ya jerk.