Armored vehicle must go, Ryan says
Was given to Sheriff’s Office in 2010 as US Army surplus
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, who served as a captain in the U.S. Army, said Monday that an armored vehicle that formerly belonged to the Army should be removed from the fleet of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office.
“I think it should be removed,” Ryan said by phone Monday, the same day the Albany Times Union printed an op-ed the executive wrote about demilitarizing U.S. police de- partments. “I do not believe these vehicles belong in Ulster County or anywhere else in the country.”
Ryan said he has made his position clear to Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa, who could not be reached for comment Monday. The executive said if the vehicle is not taken out of commission, he will look for other ways to accomplish his desired “outcome.”
The issue of military equipment being used
by police has come to the fore in recent weeks amid protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer pressed a knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd was lying on the ground. Violence in some cities led President Trump to suggest sending in active-duty troops to quell the unrest.
In his op-ed, Ryan noted the presence of a vehicle similar to Ulster County’s at a recent protest in Poughkeepsie.
“Last week, I joined thousands of peaceful protesters in our community to raise our voices against generations of injustice and systemic racism in our country,” he wrote. “Linked in arms with activists, faith leaders and community members, as we reached the middle of the MidHudson Bridge, we encountered a wall of law-enforcement officers outfitted as if they were going to combat. Just behind them, a military-grade
armored vehicle stood at the ready.
“Over a decade ago, I had used equipment like this in combat, but I never imagined these weapons of war would be pointed at me and a group of peaceful protesters — my own community turned into a war zone,” Ryan wrote.
Ryan said Monday that he was “shocked” by the show of force, especially given the peacefulness of the protesters. He called it “an overreaction” and
“counterproductive.”
The armored vehicle in the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office fleet was obtained in 2010 as part of the federal government’s disbursement of surplus U.S. Army supplies. The vehicle is known as a Mine Resistant Ambush Protective vehicle, designed to withstand roadside bombs, said Ryan, who served in the Iraq War.
“I rode around in those for 27 months,” he said in the Monday phone call. “... I have a very hard time seeing
those in America ... including in Ulster County.”
Ryan wrote in the oped that the time has come to end displays of military might by police.
“Ending the militarization of our local police forces is just one of the many necessary institutional reforms we must make to heal the fissures between law enforcement and the communities they are meant to serve,” he wrote, “but it is one we can and should undertake now.”