Pushback builds against armored car purchase
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. penned many famous speeches. Of course, people have presented their mostliked orations, including “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”, “The Other America”, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence, “Our God Is Marching On” and “I Have a Dream”, stir emotions and challenges our core beliefs.
Many King speeches remain unappreciated or unnoticed including his “Three Evils” delivered in May 1967 when he addressed The Hungry Club Forum in Atlanta. Dr. King sounded the alarm about racism, materialism and militarism.
His final topic tethers a situation being played out with Mercer County Freeholders who eye a request made by Mercer County Sheriff Jack Kemler. The county’s top law enforcement officer supports the purchase of a $287,000 armored vehicle.
Opponents of the proposal condemn what they call a “militarization” of county law enforcement. Freeholders will discuss the matter on Tuesday (6 p.m) followed by a vote on the matter on Thursday, Sept. 12. Coalition For Peace Action, a Princeton-based organization, urged county residents and other peace enthusiasts to contact freeholders or attend a meeting to stop the purchase.
Sheriff Kemler made his case for the armored vehicle during a late-August interview. “Safety issues for the officers as well as the residents. If we have an active shooter incident, things of that nature. basically we feel that an armored vehicle could help in those instances. It’s a good tool,” Kemler explained.
“It’s not going to be employed or deployed as an offensive vehicle, absolutely not. It’s about defense. And I feel that in these times we live in, it’s better for us to have this armored car at our disposal. I think it’s a positive thing. I understand the concerns about it. We’re not going to use this for military-type situations. What happened in Ferguson (Mo.), we hope will never happen again.”
Kemler identified past situations that warranted an armored vehicle, including a twoday standoff on Centre St. South Trenton in May 2017 when law enforcement needed an armored vehicle to remove a dead man’s body from the street after a gunman had barricaded himself inside a house.
“We had to wait hours before we could get to the body. In fact, we had hoped to have received support from the New Jersey State Police but they were involved in an incident in South Jersey. Eventually, we reached out to the Pennsylvania State Police. It’s better that we have this vehicle at our disposal.”
John Heilner, who has led a movement against the purchase penned a letter to Mercer County freeholders. Heilner noted,
“Many studies, by both academic and law enforcement organizations, have found that militarization of our police and sheriffs’ forces are counter productive - especially in tense situations. De-escalation techniques are much more effective.”
Approximately $300,000 spent for an armored vehicle sounds costly and potentially troublesome despite the assurances made by Kemler. Let’s find better uses for these dollars instead of making a risky investment in a vehicle that can be turned against ordinary citizens.
Dr. King said, “The great problem and the great challenge facing mankind today is to get rid of war … We have left ourselves as a nation morally and politically isolated in the world. We have greatly strengthened the forces of reaction in America, and excited violence and hatred among our own people. We have diverted attention from civil rights. During a period of war, when a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war, social programs inevitably suffer. People become insensitive to pain and agony in their own midst.”
Let’s invest in people and programs that uplift humanity and cultivates peaceful solutions to problems. Attend the Freeholders’ meeting tonight at the McDade County Administration Building located at 640 South Broad St.
Or, access contact information for Mercer County freeholders at mercercounty.org.