Posted on 08/11/2013 12:46:09 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
On Jan. 4 of last year, a local narcotics strike force conducted a raid on the Ogden, Utah, home of Matthew David Stewart at 8:40 p.m. The 12 officers were acting on a tip from Mr. Stewart's former girlfriend, who said that he was growing marijuana in his basement. Mr. Stewart awoke, naked, to the sound of a battering ram taking down his door. Thinking that he was being invaded by criminals, as he later claimed, he grabbed his 9-millimeter Beretta pistol.
The police say that they knocked and identified themselves, though Mr. Stewart and his neighbors said they heard no such announcement. Mr. Stewart fired 31 rounds, the police more than 250. Six of the officers were wounded, and Officer Jared Francom was killed. Mr. Stewart himself was shot twice before he was arrested. He was charged with several crimes, including the murder of Officer Francom.
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The police tactics at issue in the Stewart case are no anomaly. Since the 1960s, in response to a range of perceived threats, law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment—from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers—American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop—armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
a) So what? Isn't it their responsibility to ascertain that he actually HEARD it before escalating.
b) So what? Criminals have been proven to be incapable of properly enunciating "POLICE!! OPEN UP!!"? So how can you put the citizen at risk so the citizen's employee can do his job? Why would the burden of making a wrong guess fall on a member of the wealth-CREATING sector as opposed to the wealth-CONSUMING sector??
Bayonets?When you see cops with fixed bayonets then you will know it’s time....
The “warrior cop” gets around the icky Posse Comitatus.
I'm surprised he got off more than three.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piCL8qa9azA
At one time, "law enforcement" was literally just that -- apprehending a suspected criminal for the purpose of: (1) protecting him from armed citizens hell-bent on exacting their own brand of justice; and (2) ensuring that the suspect was afforded a trial by a jury of his peers. In most jurisdictions the law enforcement officer was outmanned and out-gunned by the armed citizenry of that jurisdiction, so he relied heavily on the respect and good will of these citizens to carry out his duties.
The whole game changed once "police officers" became commonplace in America, and the primary role of these officers was crime prevention rather than law enforcement. This seemingly subtle change created an implicit distinction under the law, between "police" and "civilians," that has no place in a free society.
The cops are going to bust down a door someday,and the guy behind it will have a belt fed weapon and body armour.
Well, the cops did shoot off 250 rounds...
The way the assault teams bunch up prior to entry — I’m surprised that somebody hasn’t taken out an entire team with well placed booby trap.
I worked with a major metropolitan police department in one of the largest U.S. cities as a publicist some time ago. All the top brass were sent to Harvard's Kennedy School of Government for instruction in community policing, mentioned in the article, and it was very effective.
Well put.
All that over hear say...all that over a few plants...wow!
The Po Po don’t actually have to see it, just take the word of someone with perhaps an axe to grind.
An M1 Garand would really eat into them,bunched up like that.I don’t understand what advantage they hope to get.
The family of Jared Francom should sue the police department for putting their loved one at risk rather than arresting him peacefully outside his job or the grocery store.
all police officers should be elected like sheriffs, that alone would fix the issue.
Good Lord! No wonder they stormed his home in a military style commando attack...
He should be treated like any other murdering international terrorist.
I think it is easier to trace the “warrior cop” to the race riots of the 60’s. that brought the advent of SWAT to deal with heavily armed militants. Then you have things like that LA bank robbery where the police went to a gun shop because they needed rifles. Add in a few city lawyers that want to reduce liability and a duty belt starts looking like Batman’s utility belt. Next thing you know the average street cop looks like an extra from Battlestar Galactica.
They could have save a lot of trouble by just burning the place down.
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