In the wake of Ferguson, the Police Department in San Leandro, California is in the process of acquiring a Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck (BearCat). This vehicle comes equipped with 11 gun ports, a rotating roof hatch with gunner stand, and a tear gas deployment system. It will be operated by police officers and it's expected to be used in protest and crowd control situations, in SWAT-type operations and in police work.

In a marketing ploy designed to make military equipment more politically palatable to small communities, Lenco Armor Corporation (the company with a monnopopy on manufacturing BearCat’s) has decorated the vehicle with numerous Red Cross emblems, and they are calling this model the “MedEvac.”

We see through this dangerous marketing ruse. Like Ferguson, San Leandro residents are a majority people of color, but the San Leandro police are a majority white. We object to the militarization of a police force. We object to the targeting of the San Leandro community with military grade weaponry. And we object to the use of the Red Cross--an emblem that internationally is designated to symbolize aid and sanctuary--from being placed on a vehicle designed for military use in our community.

The general public expects vehicles marked with the Red Cross emblem to be actual medical vehicles, operated by medical professionals, and not in support of armed conflict. Police use of vehicles displaying the Red Cross emblem for law-enforcement activities will erode the international public's trust in the Red Cross and the significance of its emblem.

We urge the American Red Cross and the International Committee on the Red Cross to enforce their trademark and rights under the Geneva Convention and refuse to allow the city of San Leandro, California, and any and all police departments nationwide, from displaying the Red Cross emblem on armored counter attack trucks, as well as to stop the Lenco Armor corporation from selling and advertising armored counter attack trucks that display the Red Cross emblem to domestic law enforcement agencies.