[BruceysMom]

I live in Southern Oregon. The meth problem here is a nightmare. Just the other day someone used my name and address and someone else's driver's license number to buy something with pseudo ephedrine in it. The people that use and make this drug are a dangerous bunch. These are often the people the swat teams are after. What happened to the old couple is terrible, and every effort should be made to keep it from happening. But I have the sneaking suspicion that many of you condemning the cops would be screaming even louder if your neighbors meth lab blew up and took your home and G-d forbid, maybe your family with it. Stuff like that has happened here, thank your deity if it hasn't happened where you live. Oh and you might want to thank a cop too. (and no I don't say that just cause cops make me hot! LOL!) I got 911 on my speed dial, but you all can call whomever you want.

[BruceysMom]

Oh sorry a brief PS we recently had a 70 some year old arrested for selling meth. Meth, it's not just for kids anymore.

[Wallace T.]

Many parts of rural America have meth problems. Like the "moonshine" of yesteryear, it can be made cheaply with readily available ingredients and, unlike marijuana, it does not require outdoor cultivation or greenhouses. Like the moonshiners and bootleggers, they are rural gangsters. The cops cannot deal with such people under Marquis of Queensbury rules. That being said, the whole SWAT approach is wrong, as too many innocent civilians are injured and private property damaged. The worst example of the abusive SWAT technique was the Branch Davidian raid in Waco, Texas, 13 years ago, though the target in this case was guns, and not drugs. Additionally, the knockless warrant plays havoc with the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizure.

As with the DWI issue, the "War on Drugs" is being used by psuedo-conservative authoritarians as an excuse for expanding government power at the expense of personal liberties.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Nice rant, but what does that have to do with militarized police forces? (I'm far more worried about cops blowing up my house than a neighbor's meth lab. doing the same.)

Evidently, the epidemic of SWAT activity seems to nicely correlate with the epidemic of meth problems. Which does not exactly make your case for you.

SWAT budgets NEED meth problems. If not for meth, they'd have to invent something else to justify their union overtime and ninja toys.