SWAT raids galore. You might want to think on the following.

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

alan

New member
White Paper

July 17, 2006


Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America
by Radley Balko

Radley Balko is a policy analyst specializing in civil liberties issues and is the author of the Cato study, "Back Door to Prohibition: The New War on Social Drinking."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Executive Summary

Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.

These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects.

This paper presents a history and overview of the issue of paramilitary drug raids, provides an extensive catalogue of abuses and mistaken raids, and offers recommendations for reform.



Botched Paramilitary Police Raids: An Interactive Map




Purchase a copy from the Cato Bookstore





Full Text (PDF, 2 MB)


Back to White Papers and Miscellaneous Reports

© 2006 The Cato Institute
Please send comments to webmaster
 
Wasn't the first SWAT team set up to deal with rare events like hostage situations? I guess they had to come up with busy work to justify the expense.

I watched an episode of Dallas SWAT and though to myself, what a horrible waste. In the middle of a very well-to-do neighborhood they start firing gas grenades into some guys house in the middle of the night. The reason? Someone said he threatened to kill himself! Since when does that require police action? The sad thing was that they actualy were congratulating themselves on a job well done!

SWAT should only be used in high-risk situations. Like high-risk felony drug warrants(where perps have a record of violence), hostage situations, or other situations like the one where two suspects had assault weapons and body armor.

This brings up another thing that irks me. The militarization of the police. Since when do peace officers wear combat boots, bloused cargo pants, a t-shirt that says "police" and a ballcap? I was traveling this weekend to the southern midwest and saw this numerous times in small towns. I personaly miss when officers wore uniforms that were befitting of their office. Now they all look like they are ready to don combat vests and bust some doors. The militarization of the regular police is troubling to me.

I was brought up to respect the police and trust them. That was easy until afew years ago. Now I see some people in the LE program at the local CC who just want a badge and a gun because they were picked on in High School.
 
Wasn't the first SWAT team set up to deal with rare events like hostage situations? I guess they had to come up with busy work to justify the expense.
Click to expand...

I believe you're right about the first part, and partly right about the second part.

Departments all over the country, big and small, formed SWAT teams because, hey, look at the cool expensive TOYS they get to play with!

I have seen that criticism leveled repeatedly, and it's hard to refute. Departments that don't seem to need them still have them.


-azurefly
 
rhgunguy said:
This brings up another thing that irks me. The militarization of the police. Since when do peace officers wear combat boots, bloused cargo pants, a t-shirt that says "police" and a ballcap? I was traveling this weekend to the southern midwest and saw this numerous times in small towns. I personaly miss when officers wore uniforms that were befitting of their office. Now they all look like they are ready to don combat vests and bust some doors. The militarization of the regular police is troubling to me.

I was brought up to respect the police and trust them. That was easy until afew years ago.
Click to expand...

I agree that the militarization of the police is disturbing and vexing to a free people.
At the same time, I have to grant that criminals today certainly do seem to have pushed the envelope FAR beyond what the criminals of yesteryear used to do.

I mean, nowadays they dress up in flak jackets, helmets and kevlar and rob banks (L.A.). They carjack. They rove in gangs through a city. Just the stuff they are willing to DO is disturbing. It's no wonder the police have adopted a "tough" image now; it's in response to the evolution of the criminal. I can see that. I don't like that it has had to come to that, but I can see why it happened.

Just like how no one really had a problem with people taking small pocketknives onto airliners before people used them to bring about evil catastrophes; once the toothpaste is out of the tube, we forever have to live with the changes that have come about, and that toothpaste ain't getting put back into the tube... :(


-azurefly
 
It's the generation of police of today I am suspicious of ..but then I am suspicious of anything today's generation is a part of...teenage boys who never matured into men...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top