An armored Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle that, if a dinosaur would be a cross between a wide-bodied Styracosaurus and a Bradysaurus, is now officially held and nurtured by the Benton County sheriff's office.
The beastly military personnel carrier, used in the IED-infested wars of the Middle East, was had from military surplus for a paltry $5,000. But since acquiring the war machine, the office has taken flak for feeling the need to even have such a thing in its domestic law enforcement arsenal.
I read 44 heartfelt exchanges in reaction to the story in the paper's online edition. Readers were firing some scalding word shrapnel back and forth over the decision. The more alarmed among them saw it as a possible step toward militarizing local police. Others said baloney, adding that the department simply had an opportunity to purchase a vehicle for its officers, especially in SWAT situations, to better protect them under fire.
My feeling? I doubt this vehicle will ever leave the garage unless there's a bona fide emergency that calls for its specific benefits. And should such a situation ever occur, God forbid, most citizens will be pleased to have it in their law enforcement arsenal. Police also have other weapons at their disposal that never get used.
Five thousand dollars spent for this vehicle (the alternative for a new and different protective SWAT model would have run close to $300,000) was a sound investment.
Good grief, folks, I'll bet the amount of metal alone in this monster is worth more than five grand.
Patricia goes alone
I found myself reflecting more than once last week on the 30-year-old woman whose body was found floating facedown in a shallow creek along 15th Street in Fayetteville. Her remains were unidentified until the state Crime Laboratory confirmed Patricia Sprouse's identity.
This story remained with me, I suppose, because she apparently died after inhaling three bottles of a cleaner called Dust Off, then drowned in the stream. Those empty containers that had held toxic difluoroethane lay empty beside her.
I couldn't help wondering how this human being had been as a child and what happened with her family, life and peers as she'd grown that left her to die alone in such a sad and hopeless state.
Generous Cargill
Information received from the University of Arkansas under a Freedom of Information Act request shows that multinational food giant Cargill Inc. of Minnesota, which has become deeply controversial since it chose to support a large swine factory in the Buffalo National River watershed (of all possible places), has contributed at least $740,595 to the University of Arkansas system and its Division of Agriculture between 1990 and this year.
Of that amount, the agricultural department specifically got $336,095 from Cargill, the records show. A team headed by representatives of that department also has been retained by the state to monitor the water quality around this factory six miles upstream from this prime tourist attraction and our state's nationally popular recreational stream.
I find that interesting information worth sharing in the interest of transparency. How about you, valued readers?
Now I'm naturally wondering (as are many others, no doubt) which other groups associated with pork production and that industry, if any, also have generously contributed to our watchdogging university.
Naked runner
Then there was the poor 21-year-old Rogers woman who made headlines after running naked down West Center Street and South Church Avenue in Fayetteville the other night and admitting she was high on LSD (blurry sideways nod to Dr. Timothy Leary).
That had to have been quite a scene for police as they arrived to arrest the pretty young woman on three misdemeanor charges. She had actually called 911 to tell dispatchers she was intoxicated on drugs and was "tripping balls," says the arrest report.
The officers showed up to find her sprinting through a parking lot and screaming before attempting to hide behind a pole. They managed to place her in restraints and get medical help. Let's hope that will be her one and only experience with mind-altering substances. No need here to embarrass the lady further by using her name (or picture) in the paper again.
GOP's candidate?
Curious readers have asked who I believe the Republican Party could select as a viable presidential candidate in 2016.
I'm no political pundit or a pretend know-it-all when it comes to forecasting and analyzing nuances in the muck of blind ideologies. No thank you. Yet if I was forced to choose a candidate I believe is bright, qualified, appealing and exceptional, I've long felt Sen. John Thune of South Dakota fits such a description.
But, curiously enough, I don't see his name surfacing in the ideologically driven national media (perhaps intentionally) or by the party itself. Told you I'm not cut out for such ilk.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.
Editorial on 07/13/2014