Ed Brayton brings us this story about the Richland County (S.C.) Sheriff's Department's acquisition of an armored personnel carrier, complete with a .50-caliber machine gun, which they've thoughtfully called "The Peacemaker". Seriously, what the hell is going on in South Carolina that requires a police department to have a weapon capable of penetrating an inch of concrete from nearly a mile away?
Pete Guither offers great commentary on the source of the name (Matthew 5:9):
You know, I was raised studying the Bible and had a special interest in the Sermon on the Mount. In all my reading of the beatitudes, I never once imagined Christ astride an Armored Personnel Carrier complete with a turret-mounted .50-caliber belt-fed machine gun, surrounded by apostles in SWAT gear, as he said to the crowd "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."
Fortunately for them, the Richland County Sheriff's Department still doesn't win the contest for "most ironic use of the term 'Peacemaker'"; that dubious honor still belongs to SAC (Strategic Air Command), who used that moniker (or a derivative thereof) for a bomber and an ICBM.
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