The Metropolitan Police is trialling new ‘Sandcat’ armoured vehicles across London – which are manufactured by Israeli armoured vehicle company Plasan. For more than thirty years, Plasan has supplied these systems to the Israeli military, including around seven hundred ‘Sandcats’ since the beginning of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
A Met spokesperson said the eighteen vehicles it has bought from Plasan will be used to suppress ‘serious public disorder’ and will replace its fleet of ‘Jankel’ armoured cars, according to reports in The New Arab.
Israeli arms companies frequently use the deployment of their weapons in Gaza as a sales tool, boasting that they are ‘battle tested’ after being used against Palestinians.
*genocide-tested in Gaza
A new way to fund the Israeli genocide, neat.
This, in no way, looks like a vehicle that could offer anything but hindrance, difficulty, and cost to the job, being quite ineffective at most things required of it. It is designed with a purpose in mind and it wasn’t the streets of London.
That may be true, but even worse, America shows: When you put war equipment on the streets, they’ll use it to wage war. The tools may not be the root of the problem, but they will supercharge a dehumanizing “us versus them” mindset of police.
People will refer to these as “tanks” especially when a weapon is mounted on them but they are not, they are correctly referred to as MRAPs.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine-Resistant_Ambush_Protected_Vehicle
You are right, MRAPs are for counter insurgency conflicts and for the love of whatever god you do or don’t worship please don’t let police institutions anywhere near war, what you will get is a genocide disguised as a war (turns gaze straight at the IDF with a Gorgon Stare).
Good news though! A common complaint from warfighters is that MRAPs are inherently tall (to direct mine blasts away) and thus easily tipped over and they are heavy af and probably super annoying to pull back upright so take from that what you will UK citizens.
It’s replacing these:
Metropolitan Police Jankel Guardians engaged on an operation. These are utilised by public order and armed officers for high-profile operations and airport patrols.
Fascists gonna fasc
Hang glider unproofed
Why not the Land Rover Tangi, or OVIK Pangolin? It works well in Northern Ireland
Just remember to never get out of them.
a fucking cab
…I had a sudden mental image of a fleet of black cabs skidding in sideways and riot police on horses pouring out, but their first card declined so they mill about digging through their wallets trying to pay the cabbies
Ouch, I’ve been hit in the head by something wooden and traveling in an arc!
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