Beware Of The Police's Increasing Militarization

Investor's Business Daily ^ | September 30, 2013 | IBD EDITORIALS

[trapped_in_LA]

This smells more like what’s been going on out here in the Cali desert (Kern County for those that are interested). There are a lot of people living out there that went there to live life the way they want to, which usually means that they’re living with a lot of junked cars, etc on their property. Well the county decided that was bad for property values and started sending out SWAT teams to do code enforcement. Same MO, handcuff the owner(s) and make them sit there while the cops trash their place and haul off anything of value, then slap them with dozens of code violations and fines that basically forces them to give up the property.

It sounds like this “farm” was in a higher rent community and someone with some pull had them SWATed. I don’t doubt that their property probably looked like hell and that they were not the best of neighbors but this is America, or at least it was and people used to be able to do what they wanted with their property. Not any more.

[PghBaldy]

It started before Obama, though everything seems to have gotten worse since him.

[ApplegateRanch]

Really helps when the conservative sheriff is elected, and then ‘reserve deputizes’ most of the decent guys in the county.

[GeronL]

bump

[lastchance]

This has been on my radar for sometime. I hope more people become aware of it.

[marktwain]

Sounds like the neighbors complaints are vague and probably result from some personal feud or imagined wrong.

Typical zoning tyranny.

[TigersEye]

You know, I have to admit that I made a mistake being too partisan in the Pubbie primary for Sheriff. His opponent was running on an even more hard core 2nd Amendment/conservative platform and I voted for him. But the guy we got had twenty year's experience in this county's Sheriff's dept. He won the primary and won the election and his experience and character have proved to be exactly what we needed at exactly the right time.

Politics didn't seem so important last year when tens of thousands of acres were going up in flames on the outskirts of our biggest town or this year when every road, large and small, was being washed down the canyons. But he has stood up politically too and said gun control don't go 'round here.

[FreedomPoster]

There are still a few drug warrior militarized cop supporters floating around here at Free Republic.

[Carry_Okie]

There are still a few drug warrior militarized cop supporters floating around here at Free Republic.

Well, I don't think blanket legalization of drug use is the answer, but I don't think no-knock SWAT raids are either (we need to cut that capability back by about 80% before even talking about anything else along with getting rid of public employee unions).

I'd prefer to elevate the sentence for crimes or civil damages done while under the influence, but most users cannot be financially responsible for the harm they may commit while under the influence. So the correct policy is frankly beyond my ken, but I do think the laboratory of Federalism is up to working out the details. In no way does the Federal government belong in regulating or criminalizing the drug business.

[tbw2]

Kennedale, Texas, is a southern suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth. Kennedale ironically has rules to maintain its property values and rural feel by limiting the number of foundations people can pour.
And then a hippie farm gets raided on accusations of marijuana and a lot of code violations. But the city is creeping that way, and there are a lot of developers that would love to have a large, cleared tract like that.
And this isn’t far from where a whole area of houses was condemned to build a new Cowboy Stadium.

[2ndDivisionVet]

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Are you playing dumb or are you actually that stupid?

[zeugma]

Are you playing dumb or are you actually that stupid?

There are always supporters of the police state. Thankfully, they are thinning out here quite a bit.

[lavaroise]

Indeed. In Iraq there were problems with corrupt police and commanders who did not answer to their iraqi general, invading an occupying entire neighborhood even though the US had built barraks for them.?

[chulaivn66]

As to the killing of Jose Guerena in Tucson, AZ, a settlement with the county of Pima was reported last week. It is my understanding there are other entities which have not yet settled or are debating whether to proceed to civil court to fight the suit by Guerena’s wife through her attorney. For those not informed as to this incident Guerena was suspected of being involved in the drug trade and the warrant was served to search for evidence of drug crime involvement. They did not have an arrest warrant.

http://azstarnet.com/news/blogs/police-beat/m-settlement-in-deadly-swat-raid-near-tucson/article_832b91ca-5b21-517d-bf8d-124008f63529.html

http://www.azfamily.com/news/34M-settlement-in-deadly-SWAT-raid-near-Tucson-224495481.html

http://www.kgun9.com/news/local/Deadly-SWAT-raid-county-reaches-settlement.html

[Impy]

Ping

[Clintonfatigued]

A number of raids are used under absurd circumstances. Raiding organic farmers for unpasteurized milk is inexcusable. Also, calling an 82nd. airborne of police troopers to raid pot parties is over the top. Some of this is the result of reaction to the late 80’s/early 90’s crime wave, which peaked in 1992 and has fallen since.

[bamahead]

Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!

[freedom462]

This is pretty damn high on the list of things that is making many former hard leftists abandon the Dims and abandon leftist statists entirely. For the Tea party, being known as the only group of people who are gonna actually do anything about this would work wonders for them. Hell, it could even get them some support from academia and Hollywood.

[TigersEye]

;-)