We gots us some troops! (Lancaster County SERT team)

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We had an 'Emergency services' day at our campus last week. This happens once each year, and is generally a pretty kewl affair. Our students get to meet and interact with police officers, EMT's, firemen, National Guard troops, K9 officers, and other assorted critters of the public good.

This year... new folks made an appearance, at least new to me. Turns out my county has it's own SERT team! (SWAT, to you old farts, and yes, they had to explain it to me). Many of the local rural and urban police departments got together and built a team made up of various specially trained officers from various departments, and gave them some pretty serious backing. Shucks... we even gots us our own armored assault vehicle (sort of).

Now, I may not always agree with how such teams are put to use, but the thread running through my mind as I talked with these guys was pretty simple. These are our local police.... folks who live here in our community.... whose families are the community.

Normally.... heavily armed police type folks concern me, as the dark side is only one elected Socialist away. That said, I don't see these guys headed that way. They are our neighbors, doing what can can be a dangerous and dirty job, and I salute them.