Texas Gunboat

[fmaster360]

I saw a customs boat with quad 300's on it. Looked to be at about 50mph cruising...

[WillieT]

OK, I gotta ask the obvious question that seems to be a point here:  HIGHWAY Patrol?     I would like to see them pull me over on the Interstate with that...     Don't want to sound political here, but did Rick Perry come up with the idea of getting a fast boat for the Highway Patrol?  

Texas Highway Patrol are the official "State Police" for the State of Texas, just like the Mississippi Highway Patrol are for Mississippi......

So you guys don't have water cops?  I mean, go out on Tampa Bay, you have marine units from every agency out there...Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, Manatee County, Tampa Police, St. Pete Police, FWC...I'm sure there are more, but no Florida Highway Patrol (FHP).  Guess they figure highway means highway...

Welllll.....actually to be more accurate, the Texas Highway Patrol is a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, along with the Texas Ranger Division, the Criminal Investigation Division and others.....all of the Divisions have statewide jurisdiction so they have jurisdiction on all land in Texas and on all waters in or that border the State of Texas.  There is also the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife which enforce the game and fish laws and the Marine Law.....they show up on the water also, but in Fresh Water, you may also see County Sheriff boats or even City Police boats....lots and lots of lawmen in Texas waters........just about all of which I have have dealings with at one time or another.....

[seabob4]

Waste of taxpayer $$$.  Yeah, the money was put out there in the form of an economic stimulus by the Obama administration.  Unfortunately, some agencies decided to do what they want with that money, without the oversight from congress, which happens to be red at the time of this fiasco.  Hence, we have a bunch of YF wannabe coastie boats with all-terrain trailer tires, and you can imagine who authorized that expenditure...

Probably wasn't a member of the red party, seeing as this is Texas...

[aquaaggie]

Definitely agree that it's probably a very overblown "waste" of money upon first inspection. Why would they possibly need boats of that caliber? Surely they don't need to be Yellowfins, and I'm willing to bet they could have found a way to spend slightly less money on this project...

However, when you look at what's been going on down on the border (most of your news networks don't want to actually tell you about it, except for a blip on the radar when something extraordinarly bad happens), and you see the rate at which the problem is rising, coupled with the lack of federal support that you are getting for protecting your own borders, you start to understand why something has to be done. Now, part of producing those obnoxiously awesome boats is just that- producing obnoxiously awesome boats so that people will take notice. Have you seen how many boat shows they've been taking those things to? Those boats (or boat singular; I know there are to be 6 in total, but not sure how many have been delivered) are on a small rock tour right now, and they WANT people to take notice. People in the US are getting shot and killed on the border, as well as on US soil, by Mexican drug cartels that are starting to make South Texas their North Mexico playgrounds. At some point, someone will have to do something about it, and clearly Obama is not going to be the comander in chief that will stand up to our neighbors from the south and force them to get their house in order (granted, no one else has forced that either; he's just the latest in a long line). I also don't believe Texas took any Obama money, and is a net payer of federal taxes (they give more to the US than they get from them). They're currently one of only a few states that runs a budget surplus, so at least the money that they are spending is their own. If the taxpayers there are against it, they'll vote Perry out of office.

As a conservative, I philosophically do not agree with wastes of taxpayer money, but there actually is a bit of rhyme and reason to what they are doing here. Do I agree with the level of waste that they may have obtained, probably not. Will people on the outside understand? Definitely not. But until something starts putting a limit to what's going on at the border, I'm all for Texas spending their own money to protect themselves.

Not meant to drive a political discussion; just my $0.02 since it's a bit personal to me.

[seabob4]

Nor I, as well, even though I instigated things...   Who, Bob?

I just get a little tired of all the Obama bashing, Dem bashing, whatever, when both sides have had an equal share in driving things to the point where we are today.  Sorry my "apoliticalness" went out the door for an evening....

[aquaaggie]

Agreed. The one thing that is certain is that there is a problem to the south, and someone (blue/red, left/right) is going to have to address it at some point. There isn't near enough attention given to the problem, but it's getting out of hand lately.

[aquaaggie]

...and right on cue, I saw this beauty at lunch today...

[Capt Matt]

Like the sheriff needs a Gause...
Million dollar bullet proof gunboats I can kinda understand but a undercover Gause,
Capt Matt

[RickK]

Took the words right out of my mouth  

[seabob4]

And an F350 Quad Cab to pull it...  

Wait a minute...Power Pole?  Porta-bracket?  Upper station?  Confiscated toy, perhaps?   And check out the bullet nose cone on the Vrod...350?

[gran398]

Guarantee it was confiscated.

[seabob4]

Guarantee it was confiscated.

I don't know, Scott.  Check out the fenders...and the forward bimini/dodger...and what looks like a console cover...all the same green as the sheriff...

[gran398]

Simple add-ons...keeping it "real"....

[aquaaggie]

I was fairly confused by this as well; at first I thought "what the hell could they possibly need that for?", then saw the power pole and figured it was his personal boat, then thought "there's no way in hell he could possibly afford that", then got pissed because maybe we're paying him enough to be able to afford it, then saw the fenders and other green accents and went back to figuring that it was in fact a sherrif dept boat. I wish I had gone up a bit closer to check it out, but I was hungry and already looked a bit suspicious taking pictures in the middle of a parking lot. I'll keep an eye out for it around town in the future, but until then watch out for a white Gause around the waters of Bradenton...