I have to admit that I'm completely against this trend of militarizing local law enforcement. If an MRAP is good for a town of 150,000 people what's next, a.....
It's even a stretch to suggest MRAPs for the police that patrol the Chicago South Side. What DoD should be doing is to transfer the MRAPs to state National Guards. Then if Obama's sons go on a rampage, they're still available. Meanwhile, what on God's green Earth does Salinas, CA need with an MRAP?
MRAPS are not appropriate for patrol. They are appropriate for the uses I listed before. I don't know enough about Salinas, CA to say if their city needs one, but they chose to get one.
Transferring the MRAPS to the National Guard would keep them in the DoD inventory, and on the DoD budget. It does nothing to reduce our Federal debt load. If the Fed gives them to state or local government under the Federal Excess Property Program, maintenance and fuel come out of their budgets. In this case, the good people of Salinas are paying for it with their taxes, and their city council is much more accountable to the taxpayers than the Feds are.
Remember the old days, when the government sold military surplus? Those were the days.