Just Saw Something I'd Never Seen Here Before

[308Mike]

I'd certainly not seen anything like that out in the relatively small city where I live (a small city in San Diego county). I was coming home from running down to the local discount market/liquor store (picking up a gallon of milk for $4.39), and as I was approaching our closest fuel station (Dion & Sons on Woodside Ave), I saw a large black vehicle with folks wearing desert camo around and on it, putting fuel into it. As I was passing it, I looked over and saw plainly printed on the side: HOMELAND SECURITY. If I'd known that was what I was coming up on, I would have taken a few photos of it. My wife said if they'd seen me taking photos, they'd probably try and take my phone (if they could catch up to my car and/or before I could send them all over if they were coming after me).

WTF are they doing out in Santucky, right next to Lakeside? They SHOULD be down on the border dealing with the incursions from the Mexican army, that is, unless they're standing by for complaints about people NOT celebrating Cinco de Mayo (violations of political correctness). When I got home I looked them up, and sure enough, found plenty pictures of what I just saw. They're quite a ways from the border, but that doesn't mean they were out here to raid a house or two (or perhaps SWAT some totally innocent and unsuspecting family - scaring the shiite out of them).

Their presence out here does make me wonder......................

[Aesop]

Judging by the trophy on the hood in that last pic, they won the trophy for "Best Impersonation Of An Actual Law Enforcement Agency, Governmental Division".

That's one of those small-output contractor "armored" cars. Unfortunately, the roof hatches do a piss poor job of sealing out flaming gasoline, and the side windows especially are vulnerable to paint and oil projected onto them to blind those inside.

In short, in an actual emergency, they are $200K rolling coffins.
But it's DHS, so that's a feature, not a bug.

And they have nothing to do with border security, where all those flaws would tested by Mexican teenagers on the cartels' behalf in about a hot minute.
"Verde" in a cerveza bottle will take out their RV at a round price of about 25 pesos@, or about $2 worth of beer bottle and gasoline.
As the former Ukraine state police learned to their chagrin last fall and winter.

[Jericho941]

When the only thing an RPG will hit is your windows, choose... whatever that thing is.

[PawPaw]

Hmm. It has neither a glacis nor sloped armor on the vulnerable parts. This is what we (in armored warfare) call a "Target" and a poorly armored target at that. It might protect against small arms, but for an armored personnel carrier, it's pretty piss-poor, which matches exactly the "Homeland Security" logo on the side.

I'd love to slap a shaped charge against it and see how well the jet penetrated. Purely as a hypothetical exercise, you understand, with proper troop safety. But, from my professional opinion (both LEO and military) this looks like some kind of wannabee bullshit.

[Jered]

If anyone is wondering, ICE stands for "I Can't Enforce."

There's places in Canada that are less secure than the Mexican border.

Boundary road is the United States. 0 Avenue is Canada. There's a ditch in between them.

[JAG2955]

If those are all bolt-on panels, I bet that thing spontaneously self-disassembles in an explosion or over a bumpy road.

[308Mike]

If those are all bolt-on panels, I bet that thing spontaneously self-disassembles in an explosion or over a bumpy road.

Granted, I wasn't sure about what I was looking at until I was passing it - otherwise I would have gotten a MUCH better look at it. I'm not even CERTAIN the photos display what I'd actually seen - AFAIK, it could have been a 6-wheel vehicle instead of 4, etc., etc. With the traffic and speed I was going by (almost 70 feet per second = 45 MPH); I could only remember impressions but SURELY noticed the HOMELAND SECURITY and the POLICE near the bottom.

I really wished I had gotten photos of them in their desert cammies climbing over a SOLID BLACK vehicle (NOT noticable AT ALL), and with the BOLD "HOMELAND SECURITY" along the sides - they were kinda' hard to miss!!!

[Yogimus]

99% of defense is to make the attacker pick a different target.

[Dub_James]

I think the "ICE" stands for "Illegals Can Enter". At least, it seems, that's the current Administration policy.

[dfwmtx]

Someone needs a citizen's arrest for blocking a public thoroughfare, it looks like.

And patrolling the border to catch illegal immigrants is a violation of the illegal immigrants rights. Nope, gotta patrol a hundred miles into the interior, search everyone in violation of the 4th amendment, and catch the illegal immigrants there. And get with the times; calling them 'illegal immigrants' is degrading. They're 'undocumented migrants'. It's much nicer to call them this when we detain them for months on end before deportation.