ron_leflore: For those who don’t know. . .
This was a federal law enforcement operation by, I believe, the ATF.
It is illegal to use US Army forces against US citizens under any circumstance. I think the excuse here is that there’s an FBI guy driving the tank, which was on loan from the US Army at Fort Hood.
This picture enrages some people because of that projection of federal power where they think it doesn’t belong. It directly led to the Oklahoma City federal building bombing in 1995.
Dittybopper: Consensus is that the FBI went a littttle overboard that day.
*”Mr. Craig told jurors that military vehicles used by the F.B.I. in the Branch Davidian operation included seven Bradley armored personnel carriers, four 54-ton combat engineering vehicles, two M-1 Abrams battle tanks, and a tracked maintenance recovery vehicle.”* (New York Time article;
Note that those vehicles were manned by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents who had received training from US Special Forces personnel at Fort Bragg, NC. This was done to get around the prohibition of US military forces beng involved in police actions in the US.
dirtyturkey420: Should have listened to the officer’s orders.
Whaddaya Say?