Chinese Terror Cops Get Segways
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James Joyner | Monday, July 7, 2008 |
This story is a few days old now, but Noah Shachtman’s post is the first I’ve seen it:
Chinese elite anti-terror police officers are wheeling into action ahead of next month’s Beijing Olympics on two-wheeled scooters. Members of the country’s armed police unit practised on the Segway models that have been re-named ‘Anti-Terror Assault Vehicles’ in the eastern province of Shandong.
Officials have bought 100 Segways and painted some in military camouflage to patrol airports and sporting venues during the Games.
In one drill, police posing as terrorists held ten badminton audience members hostage, ’shooting dead’ four ‘hijackers’, capturing two and defusing a mock car bomb.
A picture is, they say, worth a thousand words. Perhaps more in this case:
Noah quotes someone named RYP, “Ya gotta love a country that turns a Segway into a tool of oppressing the masses.” That’s a great line although, in this case at least, it appears that they’re actually providing necessary security services. Even police states have a legitimate requirement for police, after all.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Stop! Or I'll lean forward!
Camouflaged Segways. Yeah, that'll work.
If China was a democracy, there would be loud cries by the opposition to increase the armor on the segways (hey, some armor is an increase), no matter that it would make the segway unstable.
Has the thought past anyone else's mind that the police in Shandong maybe wanted some really cool segways and came up with a reason to justify them.
Um, how do we know they're Segways and not some cheap Chinese ripoff?
"Badminton audience" and "held hostage" is redundant.
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