SWAT Raids Gone Wrong -- Paramilitary Policing Is Out of Control

[marmar]

via AlterNet:




Drug War Chronicle / By Phillip S. Smith

SWAT Raids Gone Wrong -- Paramilitary Policing Is Out of Control
In 1980, 2,884 SWAT deployments were recorded nationwide; the number today is estimated by experts at 50,000 annually or more.

June 1, 2010 |


As is periodically the case, law enforcement SWAT teams have once again come under the harsh gaze of a public outraged and puzzled by their excesses. First, it was the February SWAT raid on a Columbia, Missouri, home where police shot two dogs, killing one, as the suspect, his wife, and young son cowered. Police said they were looking for a dealer-sized stash of marijuana, but found only a pipe with residues. When police video of that raid hit the Internet and went viral this month, the public anger was palpable, especially in Columbia.

Then came a botched SWAT raid in Georgia -- not a forced entry, but otherwise highly aggressive, and directed at the wrong building -- that left a 76-year-old woman hospitalized with a heart attack.

And then came the tragedy in Detroit two weeks ago, where a member of a Detroit Police SWAT team killed seven-year-old Aiyana Jones as she slept on a living room couch. Allegedly, the officer had a tussle with the girl's grandmother as he charged through the door after a flash-bang grenade was thrown through the window, and the gun discharged accidentally, though the account has been disputed by the family's attorney. In this instance, police were not looking for drugs but for a murder suspect. He was later found in another apartment in the same house. Again, the public dismay and anger was palpable.

Botched (wrong address or wrong person) raids or raids where it appears excessive force has been used are certainly not a new phenomenon, as journalist Radley Balko documented in his 2006 study, "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Policing in America." But most raids gone bad do not get such wide public or media attention.

The victims often are poor, or non-white, or both. Or -- worse yet -- they are criminal suspects, who generally generate little sympathy, even when they are abused. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/147068/swat_raids_gone_wrong_--_paramilitary_policing_is_out_of_control_/

[midnight]

1. Were are the attorney's who spent years learning about our constitution?

[Doctor_J]

2. they've all been fired and replaced by fascist partisan hacks

[truedelphi]

3. Also, in most cases, the police and the SWAT team people DO NOT EVEN BOTHER

To check before hand to see if Jackson Smith, notorious meth-producing drug overlord, is really living at the given address.

No, they simply show up between 11 Pm and 4Am, and kick in the door. Often a flash canister is set off the moment they enter, and if your dwelling burns to the ground after that action, so what!

One researcher found that in a six year period, over 400 WRONG Addresses were affected by SWAT teams. In addition to the fire danger, in several cases, people had heart attacks (The SWAT people look more like armed thug and terrorist types than the sort of personnel we are used to seeing act as our police.) Also, in it is routine to kill family pets - loyal dogs will attack such sinister forces.

This finding - a 400 household incidence, in a six year period, is no where near accurate. As even its author concludes. Many of these types of matters are not brought to the press, and if they are, the press, in cahoots with the police, and local corrupt DA's, doesn't report them.

Why SWAT teams cannot show up a day or two early, with the ubiquitous flower arrangement or pizza delivery to see if Jackson Smith, notorious drug producer, really does live at the given address is beyond me...