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Posted on 05/17/2010 8:26:54 AM PDT by MetaThought
A reader who asks his name not be used writes about the drug raid video from Columbia, Missouri:
I am a US Army officer, currently serving in Afghanistan. My first thought on reading this story is this: Most American police SWAT teams probably have fewer restrictions on conducting forced entry raids than do US forces in Afghanistan.
...
Generally, our troops, including the special ops guys, use what we call "cordon and knock": they set up a perimeter around the target location to keep people from moving in or out,and then announce their presence and give the target an opportunity to surrender. In the majority of cases, even if the perimeter is established at night, the call out or knock on the gate doesn't happen until after the sun comes up.
...
I've heard similar accounts from other members of the military. A couple of years ago after I'd given a speech on this issue, a retired military officer and former instructor at West Point specifically asked me to stop using the term "militarization," because he thought comparing SWAT teams to the military reflected poorly on the military.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbwSwvUaRqc&feature=related
http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/11/a-drug-raid-goes-viral
Libertarian ping.
Elitists are more concerned about controlling the AMERICAN population than our country’s enemies.
IE, they’re more concerned with THEIR enemies than the country’s enemies.
Must really suck to be the guy that get to " knock"
I’d imagine he’s covered in kevlar.
SnakeDoc
There can be a substantial difference between the two scenarios though. The military might knock and stand back and give the subject a chance to come out. With police matters, perishable evidence may have to be seized and a quick entry needs to be accomplished.
The difference between raids in the US and Iraq/Afghanistan is flush toilets. Many cities started the no-knock or knock and enter raids because drug dealers would flush the evidence before answering the door. That’s not a problem when looking for terrorists or weapons.
“The difference between raids in the US and Iraq/Afghanistan is flush toilets.”
Then turn off the water to the house before knocking. The suspect gets off one flush and the evidence is left in the trap.
How will they shoot your dog if they do not bust in?
From the article...
There’s a telling scene related to all of this in Evan Wright’s terrific book Generation Kill. Wright was embedded with an elite U.S. Marine unit in Iraq. Throughout his time with the unit, Wright documents the extraordinary precautions the unit takes to avoid unnecessary civilian casualties, and the real heartbreak the soldiers feel when they do inadvertently kill a civilian. About 3/4 through the book, Wright explains how the full-time Marines were getting increasingly irritated with a reserve unit traveling with them. The reserve unit was mostly made up people who in their civilians lives were law enforcement, “from LAPD cops to DEA agents to air marshalls,” and were acting like idiot renegades. Wright quotes a gunnery sargeant who traveled with the reserve unit:
“Some of the cops in Delta started doing this cowboy stuff. They put cattle horns on their Humvees. They’d roll into these hamlets, doing shows of force—kicking down doors, doing sweeps—just for the fuck of it. There was this little clique of them. Their ringleader was this beat cop...He’s like five feet tall, talks like Joe Friday and everybody calls him ‘Napoleon.’”
SWAT means "Special Weapons and Tactics". The last part means something to smart police departments. Let's talk about the scenerio of throwing the drugs down the toilet. Well, that may not be a real good idea around here. The SWAT guys will do one if not two things before they bang on the front door. Because they know that the druggies usually have their stash zip lock bagged and normally will have their goods in numerous baggies for sales the baggies are pretty watertight. These little baggies keeps the moisture out and are pretty easy to transport. The little baggies usually float so the only time they are underwater is when the toilet is flushed and only for mere seconds. After that the goods are usually floating down the sewer pipe and are nioce and dry inside. What the smart SWAT guys do is find the sewer cleanout and using a pole drop a round net on the end of a piece of PVC and block the sewer flow. The water goes through but the hard stuff does not. They may also go right to the sewer itself and use a net to catch the goods. Doing this on camera gives the police some good evidence when the bad guys flush the goods and it is captured on it's way down the pipe. It's funny, the cops knock on the door and in a few seconds down the sewer in to the net comes the drugs. Even money sometimes. Many dealers mark their baggies with a stamp and if the police capture them going "downstream" then go in to the house and find empty bags that match the bad guy has some problems. Get all this on video and the bad guy is toast. And nobody gets hurt. This is kind of messy but effective when the bad guys flush their stash.
Not nearly so much as having a bunch of black clad wanna be ninjas break your door down at O' Dark Thirty, when they should have been at the same address on the next street over.
Even worse, when you try to defend yourself, you become a criminal, whether you live or not.
Personally, I think this says more about the idiocy of our current rules of engagement than it does about the cops.
But its pretty damning for the cops, too.
If given a choice between flushing a stash or going to prison, perps will flush the stash. Another post pointed out that good planning can stop the evidence from being lost though.
Ping.
Military guys don’t like being compared to SWAT. Seems reasonable.
OH and watch a movie called “The Professioanl” staring Jean Reno.
On the other hand, the war on drugs does provide full employment for a lot of people and if we lose focus then those people might not have their job...or their toys.
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