SIMI VALLEY : Security Firm Offers Armored Car to City
A Los Angeles armored car company, concerned about the unfavorable publicity Simi Valley received after the Rodney G. King beating trial, has offered to donate a surplus bulletproof vehicle to the city’s Police Department.
Police officials said the vehicle could be used to protect the special weapons team or to transport sensitive evidence or large seizures of cash. The donation was approved Monday by the Simi Valley City Council.
Since 1984, Los Angeles-based Armored Transport Inc. has donated more than 30 used armored vehicles to law enforcement agencies. Corporate security director John Cassotta said more than a dozen agencies are on a waiting list for the gifts.
Cassotta said he learned of Simi Valley’s interest two months ago, when a local police detective told him that Simi Valley residents were being blamed for the outcome of the King beating trial, in which four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted. The city “has gotten some bad press,” he said.
Lt. Jon Ainsworth said the vehicle might have been used June 6 outside Simi Valley City Hall during a trial-related demonstration. Demonstrators began throwing soda cans and police were forced to escort seven white supremacists away in a conventional van.
“We have had an increase in the propensity for demonstrations and civil unrest,” Ainsworth said, “and this vehicle would be very useful in responding to those kind of situations.”
The armored vehicle donated to Simi Valley is a 1983 GMC that weighs 12,400 pounds and has 76,000 miles on it.
Cassotta said state law prohibits the company from selling its armored vehicles to private parties.
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