The Idaho Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) is considering a training partnership with Blackwater USA.
In its story headlined ATF seizes weapons from Blackwater, today’s Raleigh News & Observer reported the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) seized 22 automatic weapons from a Blackwater firearms training facility in North Carolina.
Should the ATF action have any bearing on Idaho POST’s discussions with Blackwater regarding a training facility in Kootenai County?
POST already has issues with it’s trainees wishing they were more like prison guards than peace officers.
The class of 2007’s slogan was “Don’t suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), Go out and cause it”.
And Blackwater, the private, for-hire, mercenary army. They deployed themselves at least a week before they had a contract to do so, in the aftermath of Katrina. So if you are comfortable with being ordered around by some heavily armed good ole’ boys the next time there is a natural disaster here, then by all means, let the local police and the mercs go nuts pretending they are the military.
Keep in mind, they might have trouble following rules, since they are above any law operating in Afghanistan, Iraq and probably Iran (already, Shhhh).
This ATF thing won’t slow them down, I bet they have an even healthier stockpile of automatic weapons hidden elsewhere.
Comment by conspirasseur — June 29, 2008 @ 10:02 am
conspirasseur,
I suspect there’s a good deal more to this story. The reason I raised the question, though, was because Blackwater USA is directly involved with Idaho POST discussing a proposed training facility in Kootenai County. Why Idaho and why here? Assuming the linked newspaper article was accurate, there ought to be a real concern about local law enforcement getting too close and cozy with a private contractor.
If you go to the POST Council webpage, you’ll see that one of the Council members is an FBI supervisor. I wonder if he was even aware of Black’s discussions with Blackwater. If Black didn’t make him aware of it, then Black is either the most ignorant boobs alive or he’s trying to pull a fast one.
Back in October 2005 one of my Whitecaps posts proposed a shared regional criminal justice training facility on the Idaho-Washington border. The idea never went anywhere, but if it had, the facility would have been run by the states, not by a private for-profit corporation.
Comment by Bill — June 29, 2008 @ 1:17 pm