Is there no accounting in the military?

The two-man police department in this rural community outside Flint has amassed a massive amount of surplus military equipment over the last decade.

The free material, received through a federal program, includes mine detectors and Humvees, tractors and backhoes, hydroseeders and forklifts, motorized carts and a riding lawnmower. The landlocked township also has gotten boat motors and dive boots.

While much of the gear worth $1 million has never been used by the township, some has been given to residents, township officials said.

The township supervisor and a trustee said the police have stymied their attempts to find out what equipment they have, where it’s located and why some of it has been given away.

[...]

Police Chief Bob Kenny compiled an inventory that showed the police had 950 pieces of equipment, which were located at six public and private properties in and outside the township.

But nearly a third of the items, 314, were listed as “off-site,” without giving a specific location, according to the inventory.

  Detroit News

I guess if nobody is accounting for where military equipment is going in the Middle East, why should I expect them to be accounting for it here?

Meanwhile, police supporters have launched a recall campaign against Stevens and Trustee Stan Piechnik. One of the organizers is farmer Eugene Lehr, who has 21 pieces of equipment on his property, including a motorized cart, tractor, forklift, two trailers and three all-terrain vehicles, according to the inventory.

Lehr declined to discuss the goods.

“They gotta go,” he said about Stevens and Piechnik. “They’re nothing but troublemakers. We’ve been railroaded so far.”

Good lord, the size of those solid brass balls.

“What’s happening here?” asked resident Theo Gantos. “Are they getting ready for terrorist action? Is there armed insurrection? This is not something we really want in our police department.”

Maybe they're expecting the people of nearby Flint to finally rise up and revolt over their water situation.

Police supporters said some of the equipment has been useful. The two Humvees were used in two rescue operations, storage bins hold old township records, and cots and blankets were used when township hall was used as a shelter during a Christmas ice storm several years ago, supporters say.

Just because you drive Humvees to a resuce operation doesn't mean you needed Humvees.

Federal guidelines allow law enforcement agencies to dispose of the equipment after one year.

Kenny has said he gave some of the material to businesses to compensate them for transporting it from military sites to the township.

Ha. These people aren't stupid. They only had to store unnecessary equipment for a year, and then they could give it away. 'So, Billy Bob, get on down there to the military surplus and pick you up whatever you need. Bring it here and come back and get it next year.' Sounds like a perfectly legitimate loophole to pass through to me.

Mike Walther, who runs a Montrose towing company, has 18 items on his property, including a tractor, two trucks, two trailers and a riding lawnmower.

Of course! He's got a tow truck to go get the stuff.

“We don’t know what he’s got,” said resident Jon Erber. “It was never listed or turned in or documented. I don’t know any business that operates like that.”

A police department is not a business, Jon.

Former supervisor Eileen Kerr, who supports Kenny, conceded the equipment is used sparingly but quoted the chief as often saying it was better to have the gear and not need it, than the other way around.

Well, you can't argue with that kind of logic.

She said the equipment originally had been stored on township property but she asked the chief to move it because the lot began to look like a junkyard. That’s how it ended up on several private properties, she said

“I said this is something that looks like ‘Sanford and Son,’” she said about the 1970s sitcom. “We had all this crap all over the place.”

This whole mess has caused a town feud between Kenny supporters on the one side and Board trustee supporters on the other.

During a trustee meeting in December, someone urinated on Stevens’ car near the gas tank, said witnesses. No one was arrested in the incident.

Then, Stevens used the township snowplow to clear the parking lots of township hall and other buildings after a December snowfall. When he stopped off at home for lunch, someone snapped a photo of the vehicle in his driveway and posted it on Facebook, accusing him of using the plow for personal reasons.

“Perhaps someone should tell Mr. Stevens that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones,” wrote John Sherman, a Clio resident who supports the police.

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A pamphlet addressed to Thetford Township residents, which contained the phone numbers of Lehr and Bryan, said the criticism of the police’s use of military equipment was a disguised attempt to disband the department.

The leaflet referred to Stevens and Piechnik as miscreants.

“THIS EVER WIDENING REIGN OF TERROR, LIES AND ABUSE MUST COME TO AN END,” read the pamphlet.

God, I love country folk.

The Department of Defense said it suspended the township’s participation in the military equipment program pending [a] sheriff’s investigation.

Awwwww. Well, it was good while it lasted. And the town feud can go on forever.