Granted, the stories idea of a “small” county has a population of 22,000, but the point remains… what do they need an MRAP for?

Munson: Heavy-duty military equipment given to police

The town of Washington, Iowa, has been given a 49,000 pound, $733,000 MRAP (a giant Mine Resistant truck from Iraq/Afghanistan). While it’s good that they aren’t all being simply thrown away, I have difficulty imagining that the Washington, Iowa, police are going to have a lot of need to withstand RPG strikes.

Seems to me a better option would have been to put things like surplus MRAPs and M-16’s up for sale to the general public. If a police department wants an armored vehicle of a fully automatic rifle, they should have the same opportunity to buy  them that any private citizen should have.