New Haven Independent

Posted by: cedarhillresident | February 20, 2008 10:50 AM

Look, up in the sky! It's a plane!
It's a bird!
It's a frog!
A frog?

Not plane nor bird nor even frog. It's just little old me...
Heh-heh, Underdog.

Sorry I could not resist!! I love that a beagle won! Never under estimate the underdog!

Posted by: Joseph | February 20, 2008 12:32 PM

And never underestimate the cruelty of animal competitions (chopping tails, cropping ears) and the thousands of animals killed every day as the fall-out of breeding.

Posted by: Matt Uva | February 24, 2008 9:19 AM

I'm surprised the BearCat part of this story hasn't received the same "attention" it did last time. Could it be because just recently, when a man barricaded himself in his home we watched North Haven SWAT officers using their armored vehicle to approach the scene? What an embarrassment to the NHPD. I normally fear the "militarification" of police departments, but this purchase is sorely needed.
As far as I know, every municipality in the area has at least one armored vehicle (West Haven has two) -- why'd it take the one real city in the area so long???

Posted by: cedarhillresident | February 25, 2008 7:57 AM

Matt
I am sure we need it, but at least in my opinion it is kind of a joke. Most are just glad it is not coming out of city funds. I would guess that there could be other things that the department needs that the money could of been spent on.

Posted by: Ben Berkowitz | February 25, 2008 4:35 PM

I don't want to be a spoiler for Wire fans, so I won't say much, but the Fictional Baltimore police have a BearCat and you get to see it in action in the most recent episode # 59.
If it's good for Baltimore, It's good for NH.

Posted by: Matt Uva | February 25, 2008 8:20 PM

Cedar Hill represent! (edge of east rock here)

I hate to get all post 9-11 doom and gloom here, so I won't. The BearCat is not something to protect us from terrorists. The BearCat is a safe way for police to approach dangerous situations/individuals. I'm sure as a fellow Elm City resident, you can agree we have both from time to time.
I own a scanner (a Bearcat brand, ironically). I had the scanner on all day when the aforementioned man barricaded himself in the house. The "standoff" lasted at least 4-6 hours because NHPD had to wait for North Haven PD to get approval for the borrowed use of their armored vehicle and for North Haven's SERT/SWAT team to gather and "gear-up". During this time, 2 square blocks of residents, elderly included, were displaced.
Had the NHPD had such a vehicle at their disposal, the standoff would've been much shorter. Most of the time (from what I could hear on the scanner) NHPD were just waiting around, watching the house, waiting for North Haven.
Had they been waiting for the New Haven branch of the FBI, or State Police or something, okay, but really, North Haven? I mean, they have a Home Depot and a Target, and they get an armored vehicle? This has been a purchase offset for far too long. I have always said that if I ever won Powerball, the first thing I would do (or maybe the fifth thing) would be to donate one of these things to the city. There are towns in CT with less than 15 officers who find the funding for one of these.
Kudos to the officers (note: not the administration or police management) who fought for this grant.

Posted by: Chris Gray | February 26, 2008 3:07 AM

As I wrote here back in November when a poster challenged readers to name an incident faced by New Haven cops in the last 25 years that would warrant use of a BearCat, "I can think of at least two incidents in those 25 years where the police would have justifiably used the armored personnel carrier."

"The morning June 24, 1993, when the (supposed Unabomber's) mail bomb seriously injured Prof. Gelertner... another is the day explosives long left over from a radical group... that was in a garage on Dwight Street behind St. Paul's U.A.M.E. Church on Chapel Street..." was discovered.

"In neither case would the vehicle actually have proved useful, but... it is tough enough having a job (in which) you could just get run down doing (it) without facing literal explosives."

On the other hand, I was concerned with the cost and added, "Yale... should pay, if one should even be bought, for a Virginia Tech-style mass murder. They are as likely to be the scene as any college, maybe more so due to the stress of prestige.

Since my brother was the one who denied the cops use of a CT National Guard armored personnel carrier after the bombing of the Yale Whale (now the Guard's are probably in Iraq or Afghanistan) and since am a well-known critic of the department, yet could offer justification for its use, I suspect that cooled criticism of the concept.

I still wish they'd provide the promised bomb resistant ones to our troops. Yahoo reported tonight that the Pentagon says they are still delayed in delivering them.

Posted by: Chris Gray | February 27, 2008 2:45 AM

Holy mackeral! It is not like me to leave out an "I" but I did in that second to the last paragraph.