Sheriff: Armored vehicle needed
Figueroa pushes back against Ryan’s call for it to be removed
Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa on Tuesday rejected County Executive Pat Ryan’s call to remove from the Sheriff’s Office fleet an armored vehicle that formerly belonged to the U.S. Army.
Figueroa, in a statement emailed to the news media and posted on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, said the Mine Resistant Ambush Protective, or MRAP, vehicle is an important asset to his team in many ways.
Figueroa said the MRAP, which is bulletproof, is a defensive vehicle that has no
weapons and is intended for such uses as “removing children in the event of a school shooting ... respond[ing] to a bomb threat to safely transport bomb technicians closer to the crisis location ... for swift-water rescue during floods,” and for responding to spills of toxic or other dangerous fluids.
The sheriff also said the county saved the taxpayers money when it obtained the MRAP in 2010 as part of a federal government disbursement of surplus U.S. Army supplies. He said a commercial equivalent of the MRAP costs $250,000.
Figueroa additionally wondered why Ryan, a fellow Democrat, is making an issue out of the MRAP vehicle now.
“In a time of anti-police sentiment in our country, while some of it is deserved, I question the timing of such a topic,” Figueroa said in his statement. “The focus should be on how we can work together for real change. We should not be distracted with other topics that can be dealt with later.”
Ryan, a former U.S. Army captain who served in Iraq, first issued his call for the vehicle to be removed in an op-ed published Monday by the Albany Times Union. Later Monday, he told a Freeman reporter: “I do not believe these vehicles belong in Ulster County or anywhere else in the country.”
Ryan told the Freeman that if Figueroa does not take the MRAP 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 in Minneapolis pressed a knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd was lying on the ground, handcuffed. 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.
Figueroa on Tuesday said the federal government’s surplus equipment program “was designed to assist law enforcement who could not afford equipment needed to protect not only law enforcement, but the citizens it is obligated to protect.”
“The raw reality is this is still a dangerous world,” Figueroa wrote. “It is the responsibility of law enforcement to be prepared in the event a critical incident occurs. School shootings, mall shootings, barricaded subjects and natural disasters can happen at any time, some of which have happened here (in Ulster County).”
Of broader issues facing police lately, Figueroa wrote: “Law enforcement is going through some challenging times. We are not perfect, and we acknowledge we have serious work to do to continue to build trust in African-American, Latino and underprivileged communities.
“Economics, employment, how we treat each other at the workplace, how we hire, how discipline is viewed, how promotions and raises are conducted when it comes to people of color are issues that confront us and need to be addressed collectively,” he added.
“This is not the time for more divisiveness between law enforcement and the community it serves,” he said.
Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra, who is president of the Mid-Hudson Police Chiefs Association, said Ryan’s call to remove the MRAP seems to be based more on politics than common sense.
Sinagra said among the benefits of the vehicle is it’s the only “tool in the tool belt of local law enforcement” capable of removing as many as 20 individuals safely from an activeshooter situation because it cannot be penetrated by rifle bullets.
Sinagra also said Ryan’s statement “blindsided the law-enforcement community at a time we are down.”
“We in law enforcement need to know we have the support of our leaders,” he said. “That vehicle has never been used against the general public. He (Ryan) has placed his own political aspirations ahead of his common sense.”