Thank you. I agree.
Because they have these guys trained up and ready to go, they tend to use them as a first recourse rather than the last.
I love the idea of overwhelming force when force is required. I don't like the idea of militarized cops kicking down a door when they haven't yet tried knocking. There are cases where knocking is too dangerous. Thats when you call SWAT. Not when you have an old lady, or a middle-aged couple padding around in their pajamas. I think the burden should be on the cops to show that overwhelming force was required.
I would normally side with the cops, but there have been a couple of SWAT cases lately that have irritated me.
In this case especially, there was no reason for the cops doing what they did. They charged in like a bunch of aggresive cowboys.
In this case, they should have left a unit to observe the mayor's house, gotten a warrant, and sent uniformed and plainclothes cops to knock on the door to execute the warrant.
Instead, they barged in and shot this guy's dogs like a bunch of candy-asses because they felt "threatened." Cry me a river- what little candy-asses.