Lawmaker Seeks More Transparency for SWAT Team Raids

Capitol Confidential ^ | 6/20/2011 | Ken Braun

[MichCapCon]

The part-time mayor of an upper middle class Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. found himself and his mother-in-law handcuffed in his own home by a Prince George’s County SWAT team one July evening three years ago. His two black Labrador retrievers had been shot dead, the second one from behind as it fled the officers who had broken into the home in a ‘no knock’ raid as part of a drug investigation. Five months later, Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his entire family had been cleared of all wrongdoing and suspicion, but the county police were still refusing to provide documentation to justify why they had violently entered the home of an innocent man.

One expert analyst on SWAT raids says the use of them for non-violent offenders, let alone innocent targets, has become alarmingly routine, yet way under the public radar because most of the targets are not as high profile as Calvo. A Michigan lawmaker will soon introduce legislation aimed at giving citizens a better look at what their militarily-equipped police teams are up to.

[Wolfie]

...upper middle class Maryland suburb...

Oh sure, now it's a problem.

[KarlInOhio]

I hope Representative McMillin has bought kevlar vests for his dogs - they're going to need them.

[KarlInOhio]

The bigger problem is that it is a mayor. You can shoot the populous but don't you dare take on the political class.

[Fred Hayek]

If he is indeed the mayor then he should inform the sheriff’s department that they are no longer welcome. Any sheriff’s vehicle gets escorted out of town by city police.

[Secret Agent Man]

You want the origins of SWAT teams?

US State Dept Publication #5277 “Freedom From War”.

Stages II and III.

[Girlene]

Very interesting article. Good to see someone shining the light on a growing problem. From the article:

....................."And in Prince George’s County, the police department that hit Calvo’s home reported that half of its SWAT raids were conducted for investigations of misdemeanors or non-serious felonies, according to Radley Balko, "...............

....................."“That means more than 100 times last year Prince George’s County brought state-sanctioned violence to confront people suspected of nonviolent crimes,” wrote Balko, shortly after the report was released. “And that's just one county in Maryland.”".............

They are out of control.

[Yo-Yo]

The problem is that most SWAT teams have become search warrant serving teams.

With dwindling resources and officer layoffs, commanders have looked at how many hostage situations have occured in their jurisdiction (not many "Dog Day Afternoons" anymore,) and decided that the SWAT teams had the time available to serve warrants.

Unfortunately, they are trained to serve warrants one way: "Dynamically."

So they operate the same way they train. No knock, dynamic entry, every occupant a hostile threat to be neutralized.

"Oh, and by the way you are overdue on 6 parking tickets."

[hoosierham]

They are deliberately terrorizing the citizenry and conditioning people to freeze in the presence of police.

[Yo-Yo]

Oops, forgot the Elian Gonzales photo:

[Girlene]

hoosierham - Who knows why they are doing it, but if they are not stopped, the abuses will only grow.

MichCapCon, Here's an interesting interactive map and roundup of these botched paramilitary police raids put together by Radley Bilko with the Cato Institute

[pallis]

Every modern police state needs its storm troopers for citizen control.

[SES1066]

Perhaps there might be unpaid student loans? /sarc

At some point there will be indisputable innocents killed in a botched SWAT raid and the question will arise, can anything be done to rein-back this operation style. I fear that by that time, the answer will be no, because the system relies upon this level of intimidation!

First they came for the 9th & 10th Amendments, then they came for the 2nd and now it is the 4th! Big Government is antithetical with the Bill of Rights and this is how they erode it!

[SJSAMPLE]

Balko.

He’s left “Reason” magazine, and now the only way to read his work is at “Huffington Post”, and there’s no way in hell that’s gonna happen.

[randomhero97]

ping

[Smogger]

“And in Prince George’s County, the police department that hit Calvo’s home reported that half of its SWAT raids were conducted for investigations of misdemeanors or non-serious felonies, according to Radley Balko...”

Frightening.

[Girlene]

He’s left “Reason” magazine, and now the only way to read his work is at “Huffington Post”, and there’s no way in hell that’s gonna happen.

True, he writes for HuffPo, but my link of botched paramilitary police raids is from the CATO Institute.

Along with the clickable map, you can search by state, year, and type of raid (death of an innocent, death of a police officer, etc.)

[Terry Mross]

It’s already happened in AZ. Plus, EVERYONE is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. That is except in the eyes of the cops and a lot of prosecutors.

[SJSAMPLE]

Understood.
He’s done a great job of maintaining that map over the years. Whenever one of these “iisolated incidents” occurs, I go there to check the map and, sure enough, Balko’s already got it posted.

A great resource for refuting the JBT apologists.

[Forgotten Amendments]

First they came for the 9th & 10th Amendments, then they came for the 2nd and now it is the 4th!

The 1st has been gutted (McCain/Feingold) and so has the 5th (Kelo). I hate to be a nut, but we have no Bill of Rights anymore.