President Barack Obama is leaving police departments around the nation vulnerable to terrorists with a ban on the use by local law enforcement of certain
military equipment, former New York Police Department Commissioner Bernie Kerik said Monday.
In a panel discussion with "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth on
Newsmax TV, the 2003 interim minister of the interior of Iraq said the president's attempt to demilitarize local police forces ignores today's realities.
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"We live in a very different time than we did" after 9/11, said Kerik, author of a new memoir,
"From Jailer to Jailed: My Journey From Correction and Police Commissioner to Inmate #84888-054."
"New York City has had 14 different thwarted attacks over the last 13 or 14 years. We've had more than 60 attempted attacks and assaults related to radical Islam in this country over the last 13 or 14 years, and it's only going to get worse, so our police departments, they have to be prepared for those threats."
"Some of that may include the use of special weapons, armor and other things that the White House is now saying they're going to remove from the police departments or limit their ability to have access to this equipment," he added.
Kerik noted that armored vehicles that run on tracks – designed for desert operations – may not make sense in an urban environment, but in Western states, "those other vehicles may be needed."
"The 50-caliber weapons, that is a pretty high-range weapon for some of these departments," he said. "However, it may be needed.
"What we have to look at is are these things going to be precluded by law for departments to use or is it just that the federal government is going to stop authorizing or stop giving them to departments around the country? That's a big question that has to be looked at going forward."
Former NYPD detective Thom Ruskin added on the same Newsmax TV show that specialized equipment is needed "especially" by smaller departments.
"Look at Ferguson and Baltimore in the last two major episodes of unrest in this country," Ruskin noted. "Had the police and had law enforcement had those vehicles, they wouldn't have had to wait to protect themselves against things that were being hurled at them or when they were shot at. These are necessary resources for police departments to have."
"Every officer should protect themselves at all cost," he added. "We have seen different incidents around this country in which officers or civilians have been hurt or injured, where armored personnel carries have been brought in to either remove the injured officer or protect innocent civilians who are caught in the line of fire where an incident may still be going on."
Find Bernard Kerik's new memoir, "From Jailer to Jailed: My Journey From Correction and Police Commissioner to Inmate #84888-054," at Amazon.com.
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