Urban Shield 2014
Urban Shield, a law enforcement conference that includes SWAT competitions, training exercises, briefings, and a large vendors show, is underway again in Oakland this year. The downtown Marriott hotel and conference center is packed with police officers and police-industrial contractors selling everything from machine guns to drones. Alyssa Figueroa of Alternet has a good story about Urban Shield and the protests against it this year, and Ali Winston and I wrote about the event last year.
I briefly walked through the conference this morning. What’s different this year is the size of the event. It feels bigger, and attendees said they thought there were more participants and vendors.
Here’s some photos from the vendors show.
Guns are a big deal at Urban Shield. Salesmen from Sig Sauer chat about rifles and pistols. Sig Sauer’s gun factory is located in New Hampshire.
A company named Execushield which claims to have been founded on September 11, 2001 shows off a video of its paramilitary security forces operating in Columbia. Based in San Francisco, Execushield specializes in providing security to high net worth individuals and Fortune 500 companies. A salesman manning Execushield’s booth said he could not talk specifics about clients.
Members of the Brazilian Police are attending Urban Shield this year. Here the Brazilians get a demonstration of a portable explosives detection device.
Drones are still in demand among law enforcement agencies, even though there has been significant public backlash. Here representatives of HaloDrop show off their drone aircraft which the company rents out as a service to government agencies.
The .50 caliber AW50, manufactured by Accuracy International, a British weapons maker that specializes in military sniper rifles. Mile High Shooting Accessories, a vendor attending Urban Shield and distributing these weapons, says the rifles are increasingly popular with U.S. police agencies. The Alameda County Sheriff has bought several of these AW50s (for about $5,000 a piece), and the Livermore police have bought other models made by Accuracy International.
A sales rep for Mile High Shooting Accessories of Colorado shows off various models of Accuracy International’s sniper rifles to Bay Area police.
Participating in this year’s Urban Shield tactical competitions, the U.S. Marines.
Arizona gun maker Patriot Ordnance Factory shows off its weapons at Urban Shield. Patriot sells weapons to the California Highway Patrol.
Patriot Ordnance Factory’s weapons include the words “God Bless America” inscribed below the chamber.
Pueblo Lands 
Reblogged this on bayareaintifada.
I’ve no doubt that the Urban Shield convention may well next be held in, or within a few blocks of the new Levi’s[JEAN$$$$$]/49ers! [Gold Diggers] $TATEium … at 4701 Great America [Mormon Gold Bricker Style!] Parkway, Santa Clara, California 95054. (Right around the corner from the infamous, now buried, Agnew’s STATE Hospital grounds (currently ‘flowered’ (Abilify™ style) with sardine can housing for the new Valley TEMP$)…. for those driven to ‘madness’ attempting to survive with a moral system intact, in the Golden $TATE Empire (while I pretty much despise Reagan, who reportedly had a huge hand in shutting down so many Empire of California ‘mental health institutions’ (the consequence being that thousands (at least) of those ‘patients’ ended up in the Mon$trous California Pri$on $y$tem)… I’ve no doubt that those ‘institutions’ were in need of being replaced with something humane.)
Whereby [given that change of venue to Levi’$ $tadium!], there will be no resistance whatsoever ….since anyone with a conscience …. stuck living in that area …solely for that JAWB …. has been, or will soon be, so thoroughly mowed over … that: they are now dead; they are homeless; they are an economically imprisoned ward of the state, attempting to survive off of about $800 a month where one bedroom rents are typically $2,000 a month plus, while possibly terminally ill due to the utter lack of true medical care; or, they are nearing homelessness with no money to escape the first three ghastly states of being noted, …. no matter how much boot strapping!™ they are able to miraculously muster. ….
yes, still holding out for the humane replacement … whereby one is not tagged and stained with that insanity word …where one is not buried when one doesn’t care to bury their neighbors in order to stay alive.