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Editorial: Stop using SWAT teams on civilians
Examiner ^ | 8/13/08

Posted on 08/13/2008 3:09:59 PM PDT by LibWhacker

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1 posted on 08/13/2008 3:10:00 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker

Nahhh, just keep letting these goon squads go to the wrong homes and terrorize innocent folks and shoot their dogs.


2 posted on 08/13/2008 3:11:11 PM PDT by Joe Boucher (An enemy of Islam)
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To: Joe Boucher

The dogs were the first deaths at Mt. Carmel.


3 posted on 08/13/2008 3:12:41 PM PDT by Sybeck1 (I would rather be water-boarded than vote for John McCain......)
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To: LibWhacker

Reminds me of that elderly lady in Atlanta that got shot by police because they barged in her house on a no-knock warrant. She thought she was being burglarized, grabbed her gun and got several dozen bullets.

This has gotten out of control. And for what? Both of these cases were for drugs.

War on drugs? More like war on citizens. No drug out there is worth killing innocent people over. This reminds me of the prohibition days when more people died from gangster thugs running the booze and poisoned alchohol than from what was supposed to originally bad for them.


4 posted on 08/13/2008 3:15:28 PM PDT by autumnraine
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To: LibWhacker
Cato Institute on Botched Paramilitary Police Raids.
5 posted on 08/13/2008 3:17:01 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Joe Boucher

It’s time LE officers gave up the “War on Dogs.”


6 posted on 08/13/2008 3:17:23 PM PDT by yazdankurd (Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat)
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: LibWhacker

I’m going to agree. SWAT should not be used against ordinary civilians.


8 posted on 08/13/2008 3:20:27 PM PDT by marron
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To: Joe Boucher
The militarization of local law enforcement organizations is a big problem. We have more than enough Jack Booted Thugs at the federal level and we sure as hell neither need nor want them at the local level. It's getting to the point that it's hard to distinguish the locals from the Feds. Also, the locals seem to enjoy assuming the JBT role.

We used to support just about any reasonable funds request by the police and sheriff's departments. Because of the increasing trend toward militarization, that will stop--no more money as long as they keep it up. I would not be surprised if this trend isn't part of some scheme by the Feds to ensure they have help in the event our citizens finally get fed up enough to rebel.

9 posted on 08/13/2008 3:22:18 PM PDT by Czar ((Still Fed Up to the Teeth with Washington))
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To: LibWhacker

I’m not sure what else they’re good for. I’ve had the misfortune to see a SWAT team working, close up. Very effective against civilians untrained in combat.
That said, their use should be rare. Same with tasers.


10 posted on 08/13/2008 3:22:37 PM PDT by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast (My spiritual advisor is a lawyer.)
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To: marron
"I’m going to agree. SWAT should not be used against ordinary civilians."

Civilians??? You mean citizens don't you??? Or was that a Freudian slip as the opposite of civilian is military??? There's no doubt that these knuckle draggers think that they are in a military unit that's for sure.

11 posted on 08/13/2008 3:23:31 PM PDT by rednesss (Fred Thompson - 2008)
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To: marron
I agree that the SWAT team concept has gotten out of hand but is everyone that is calling for their prohibition willing to accept the shootouts that will occur when a couple of uniformed officers try to execute a warrant?

Can anyone tell me how many police officers lives, indeed suspects lives, have been saved utilizing their overwhelming force concept? How do you count tragedies that never happened?

12 posted on 08/13/2008 3:26:07 PM PDT by Cyman
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To: LibWhacker

When you are a hammer, everything else starts to look like a nail.


13 posted on 08/13/2008 3:28:16 PM PDT by starlifter
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To: marron

This is not to pick on you personally.

These were not ordinary civilians - They are CITIZENS.

The ordinary cops work for the citizens of this country, we don’t work for them.

It is time to remind the powers that be that there a two classes of people in this county, the military and civilians. Cops are just as much civilians as you and I and the military and the cops work for us.

Sam (a civilian and a veteran)


14 posted on 08/13/2008 3:28:20 PM PDT by My dog Sam
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To: Czar
The militarization of local law enforcement organizations is a big problem.

In Albuquerque, the theme of police department recruiting billboards seems to be "Join us and you too can be a JBT, rappel out of helicopters with a nifty machine gun, kick down doors and shoot dogs".

15 posted on 08/13/2008 3:28:33 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: LibWhacker

To a man who only has a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Used to be, if police officers were executing a search or arrest warrant on a non-violent criminal, they would show up at the door, during daytime, and knock. Worst case scenario in 99% of such cases? The person in the house makes a run for it.

Now, police departments have para-military SWAT teams who are trained to knock down doors and shoot dogs, even in situations where there is no indication that the person they are looking for is dangerous. They don’t strike me as real cops- if they were, they’d be involved in the difficult work of actually investigating crimes, rather than knocking down doors.

The use of SWAT teams to exercise warrants against anyone other than violent felons should stop. There is simply no reason, in most cases, to use these tactics.


16 posted on 08/13/2008 3:29:25 PM PDT by Citizen Blade ("Please... I go through everyone's trash." The Question)
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To: Sybeck1

I’ll tell ya, I’m starting to root for the innocents who shoots at these thugs as they break in.
It happened recently and the shooter got off free. Seems the “police swat team” had the wrong address, didn’t announce themselves or that they had a warrent even though it was for a different home. And they came in civilian cloths.

You’d of thought the swat guys would take it a little different after WACO.


17 posted on 08/13/2008 3:30:46 PM PDT by Joe Boucher (An enemy of Islam)
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To: Cyman
I agree that the SWAT team concept has gotten out of hand but is everyone that is calling for their prohibition willing to accept the shootouts that will occur when a couple of uniformed officers try to execute a warrant?

That is how police forces used to execute warrants for decades, with few violent incidents.

If you're going after a known violent criminal, it's one thing. But if you're looking to arrest a drug dealer with no violent felony convictions? SWAT teams just escalate the situation.

18 posted on 08/13/2008 3:32:54 PM PDT by Citizen Blade ("Please... I go through everyone's trash." The Question)
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To: Joe Boucher
That template doesn't work here. It was the right address.

Technically speaking as a "mayor" this guy was part of the institutional problem, hardly a "civilian".

For some reason the writer of the editorial is of the impression that mayors should be immune from the cops (as they are in Chicago I suppose).

19 posted on 08/13/2008 3:34:08 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: LibWhacker
back in the 80's, the first SWAT team in the area on their first "Mission", shot and killed one of their own guys...
20 posted on 08/13/2008 3:34:45 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist - CTHULHU/NYARLATHOTEP'08 = Nothing LESS!!!)
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