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.
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.
Well yeah but they fucked up the moment they gave every cop a gun. That’s not a factor with the situations these vehicles will be used for. American policing is not comparable.