Meet the newest vehicle in the arsenal of the San Diego Unified School District, a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, more commonly known as an MRAP, or the US military's answer to the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) so favored by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now, you might be asking, are the officers of the San Diego Unified School District Police (sidebar: is it normal nowadays for school districts to have police departments?) regularly subject to ambushes and/or IEDs? It seems unlikely.
The MRAP, which is valued at $730,000, was acquired for a mere pittance – $5,000 in shipping fees – through the controversial Excess Property Program, or 1033 program. That's the same Department of Defense setup that has drawn fire following the Ferguson, MO protests. Now, critics are turning towards SDUSD, claiming the district's new toy represents a militarization of schools, a charge Chief Littlejohn refutes.
Also, just in case the whole "SWAT-team gray" paint scheme is a bit off-putting, the school district has come up with a render of the thing in Red Cross white:
It's sad but I was not expecting that, are those the self-parking cars?