New at Reason

Julian Sanchez | February 20, 2006

Nick Gillespie and Veronique de Rugy explain why if the police dogs in Columbus, Ohio, don't get Kevlar vests, the terrorists have won.

Comments

|2.20.06 @ 12:40AM|#

that Chertoff graphic is an instant classic.

but he didn't need bowflex. humping carpets requires no equipment, aside from, obviously, carpet.

|2.20.06 @ 9:20AM|#

It is a nice graphic. My favorite Reason-posted photo is the one with Big Bird flipping the bird. Anyone know where to find it on the Web?

|2.20.06 @ 10:33AM|#

Like, when is Scooby going to get a kevlar vest? He really needs one, because of the, you know, monsters and stuff.

|2.20.06 @ 10:46AM|#

http://www.waynebesen.com/Big%20Bird.jpg

Ron Hardin|2.20.06 @ 10:52AM|#

It's the total that matters, not the individual appropriation.

The clearest example is state lotteries. All proceeds are pledged to support the schools. And they do in fact do so.

But what governs the money going to schools is the relative priority and wheel squeaking of interest groups, so the total going to schools is not changed by earmarking lottery money for schools.

The lottery money simply displaces some other money. The school funding line is to get voter support, and that's all.

What else is new.

I suppose you could make a direct argument for votes based on dog safety (which surely has good appeal), or economics (it must take about $5k to train a police dog - they are not very well trained, by the way, by dog training standards, say Koehler's (_The Koehler Method of Dog Training_ et seq.) that ordinary people can do for themselves, but they do it for love, and free).

|2.20.06 @ 11:42AM|#

They should do a remake of Turner and Hooch where, at the end of the movie, Hooch's life is saved by the Kevlar vest he's wearing.

Larry A|2.20.06 @ 3:35PM|#

Like, when is Scooby going to get a kevlar vest? He really needs one, because of the, you know, monsters and stuff.

Because like Scooby's most positive role model is McGruff, who wears a Colombo trench coat. If we just interacted positively with terrorists the way McGruff handles a bully problem (see the "webisode") no one will ever need a bullet-resistant vest.

|2.20.06 @ 4:37PM|#

All that money goes somewhere. Think John Maynard Keynes...

digamma|2.20.06 @ 5:23PM|#

It's a decent article, but it would have been spiced up by some of Radley Balko's work on some of the more militaristic uses police are making of that money, and why they're a bad idea.

|2.20.06 @ 6:35PM|#

Like, when is Scooby going to get a kevlar vest? He really needs one, because of the, you know, monsters and stuff.

And I would've gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids and their Kevlar vests!

|2.20.06 @ 7:55PM|#

We suspected from the manaical laughter in each taped appearance, but we weren't sure until we noticed the similarity between Osama's cave and the "undisclosed location" that Osama was really . . . . (dramatically removes mask) . . .


Dick Cheney!!

|2.20.06 @ 9:40PM|#

Some corrections -

The Cerro Grande fire in New Mexico occurred in May, 2000, not April, 2001. The fire was 100% Federal in origin, as the NPS at Bandelier National Monument had the bright idea of running a "controlled burn" during the windiest month of the year in a region that had just experienced 2 years of severe drought. The resultant fire burned 47,000 acres, over 400 residences in Los Alamos, and came very close to burning Los Alamos National Laboratory to the ground. Total damages were in excess of $1 billion.

I'm guessing that the $38 million in grants went to refurbish LANL facilities that were damaged or destroyed, hence the "homeland security" aspect. Is it an appropriate use of Homeland Security funds? Perhaps not, but seeing how the Feds burned down my home town, they can damn well pay for rebuilding it. Taking the money from NPS rather than the DHS is probably the most reasonable way to deal with it.

jasonglh|2.20.06 @ 10:19PM|#

"it must take about $5k to train a police dog "

I doubt you could get a K9 for $5k unless it came from Walmart. Its more like in the neighborhood of $7500-$15k depending on what you want it to do. A vest for a dog cost $500 and I would call that very good insurance for the one thats going in first. As a tax payer I was dumbfounded when our PD got a new dog and did not spend the $500 for the vest. There are charities that pay for the K9 vests as well.

Granted I know that article is not about the vest but all the crap they are buying with the money but there are better examples. How about 1 cop towns getting nightvision goggles and then using them to pick out the speeders without seatbelts on so they can write a double ticket.

I could also point you to a 300 person town with a volunteer fire dept getting a thermal vision camera. Granted it might save a life but that was a Homeland security grant they bought it with. That doesnt make me feel safer from terrorism.

|2.20.06 @ 11:40PM|#

In Minnesota now they build little personality cults around police dogs killed in the line of duty, which is probably of far more use to the government than the dogs themselves. If you kill a police dog, you're charged with "manslaughter," I shit you not.

If, on the other hand, the notorious Minneapolis cops let the dog bite you after you've surrendered to "reward him," you're charged with resisting arrest as an excuse.

anna|2.21.06 @ 9:59AM|#

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|2.21.06 @ 10:02AM|#

Security starts with each citizen. That being true, I'd like to request one billion dollars to build a secure castle. With a moat. To impress DHS, I propose to add an ironic twist to my castle's defenses--burning oil. With the remainder of the funds, I intend to "pretend" to be a wealthy playboy, in order to entice a terrorist attack.

See? Largesse is wasted on the government--we private citizens are much more clever.