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The Promiscuous Use of SWAT Teams Is a Bigger Problem Than Armored Vehicles on Our Streets
Townhall.com ^ | August 27, 2014 | Jacob Sullum

Posted on 08/27/2014 8:07:52 AM PDT by Kaslin

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1 posted on 08/27/2014 8:07:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I think the headline writer meant profligate — not promiscuous— but the point is clear nonetheless.


2 posted on 08/27/2014 8:12:38 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: Kaslin

Agreed! They are both militarized police; it compliments this idea that the soldiers serving as guards on USA bases are called MPs (for Military Police).


3 posted on 08/27/2014 8:12:56 AM PDT by veracious
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To: Kaslin
The Promiscuous Use of SWAT Teams Is a Bigger Problem Than Armored Vehicles on Our Streets

This is so. And the only way to fix it is to pierce the immunity shield that the judiciary has fabricated from whole cloth.

Cops who obtain warrants on flimsy or fabricated representations need to be personally liable - criminally and civilly.

Cops who execute no-knock warrants at the wrong address need to be personally liable - criminally and civilly.

Judges who issue warrants on flimsy or fabricated representations need to be personally liable - criminally and civilly.

No-knock warrants need to suffer strict scrutiny as to whether alternative means to accomplish the search or arrest could be employed. Again, with personal liability for both the cops and the issiung judge for use of excessive force.

The nascent totalitarian police state needs to be strangled.

4 posted on 08/27/2014 8:18:18 AM PDT by Paine in the Neck (Socialism consumes EVERYTHING)
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5 posted on 08/27/2014 8:23:47 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: Kaslin

Do SWAT members get paid more for their service?


6 posted on 08/27/2014 8:27:20 AM PDT by ßuddaßudd (>> F U B O << "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?")
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To: ßuddaßudd

Yes. SWAT gets additional “hazardous duty” pay, plus generous comp time.


7 posted on 08/27/2014 8:42:21 AM PDT by FBD
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To: Paine in the Neck

Concur


8 posted on 08/27/2014 8:50:43 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Kerry, as Obama's plenipotentiary, is a paradox - the physical presence of a geopolitical absence")
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To: Paine in the Neck

........yes, I think the police some years ago made a wrong decision and went down the wrong road re SWAT implementation. They need to turn around, go back up the road to the fork and take the right road.

The right road I think is you don’t bust in to peoples houses in the middle of the night. The natural “instinct” of anybody, citizen or criminal, is to reach for a gun if you have one. I know I would.

SWAT needs to be employed ONLY in broad daylight where everybody knows what the hell is going on. Now the cops will complain that they lose the advantage of surprise and that that loss will cost lives (theirs). Well, that’s the conundrum for a SWAT team member isn’t it! Each individual SWAT team member will have to make that decision. But, they have proven over recent years that current policy permitting late night or early morning raids is also killing people! And in too many cases it is innocent civilians and children..................and dogs!


9 posted on 08/27/2014 8:53:44 AM PDT by Cen-Tejas (it's the debt bomb stupid!)
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To: BenLurkin

I think the writer wrote what he meant.


10 posted on 08/27/2014 9:03:18 AM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: All

I often hear of “a few bad cops” giving all the others a bad name. The question then becomes; “Why don’t the good cops, turn in the bad cops?” The only comparison, and I will be the first to admit that it is an unfair one, is to Islam.

We are always told of the radical 10% that are the trouble makers, but we never hear anything from the other 90%, that rebukes the actions of the minority.

Same holds true of police, no matter how poorly or illegally an officer has acted, his brothers and sisters in blue will NOT speak up against him.

Another impediment to cleaning up law enforcement is that when an officer is found guilty of misconduct, the tax payers and not the officer are on the hook for any costs. The officer may lose their job, but the tax payer foots the bill.

So what can we do to fix this situation? Well as my old First Sergeant used to say; “Don’t complain unless you have a solution to the problem.” Well here is my idea.

Any and all monetary damages awarded to a plaintiff as a result of the actions of law enforcement officers, are to ONLY come from the offending departments or organizations pension fund.

Only when it hits home personally by weakening every officers retirement, will the good ones begin to turn in the bad ones. In time, department phycologists and training officers will do a better job of weeding out the nut jobs. Senior staff will do a better job of triple checking addresses before conducting a “no-knock” late night call to a suspect’s home. Officers will advise their partners that a course of action is not advised, rather than just going along.

And once this has happened, law enforcement might begin to gain some of the mountain of trust and respect that they have lost in past few years.


11 posted on 08/27/2014 9:27:35 AM PDT by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: Paine in the Neck

I completely agree...and be replaced by the roving crowds of armed, crazy 18 year old thugs who rob stores, beat up clerks, bash in cops’ heads, break down your front door and kill your dog (oops, that is only the cops who kill dogs). But, I like your “handcuff the evil LOE” and make certain that the Muslims are free to traffic children for sex-slavery and visit your neighborhood so you can hold hands and sing Kum-By-Yah. You’re going to love your brave new world.


12 posted on 08/27/2014 9:29:32 AM PDT by Dutchboy88
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To: Kaslin

Good post. Thank you.


13 posted on 08/27/2014 9:46:28 AM PDT by Buffalo Head (Illigitimi non carborundum)
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To: Sergio

I have often proposed that all public employees including law enforcement and fire protection be removed from ‘union’ collaboration, influence and any other such anti public status. However, I certainly will go for the/a first step to make any and all bad actions to be penalized at the union and personal retirement funding point.


14 posted on 08/27/2014 9:53:36 AM PDT by noinfringers2
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To: Buffalo Head

You’re welcome


15 posted on 08/27/2014 10:23:29 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Sergio

Good solution, if it can be implemented.


16 posted on 08/27/2014 10:26:24 AM PDT by expat2
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To: Dutchboy88
I completely agree...and be replaced by the roving crowds of armed, crazy 18 year old thugs who rob stores, beat up clerks, bash in cops’ heads, break down your front door and kill your dog (oops, that is only the cops who kill dogs). But, I like your “handcuff the evil LOE” and make certain that the Muslims are free to traffic children for sex-slavery and visit your neighborhood so you can hold hands and sing Kum-By-Yah. You’re going to love your brave new world.

And, of course, there's no middle ground where a cop seeking a warrant has to attest, under pain of penalty, that their information is solid, they have the right address, there is no other way (such as, for example, simply surrounding and waiting); a middle ground where the judge issuing the warrant must swear, under pain of penalty, that he has thoroughly satisfied himself that the cop has presented a sufficiency of evidence as to circumstances and methods.

Per you, our only choices are to carte blanche cops firebombing babies in their cribs in the dark of night or letting vast mobs run wild in the streets.

17 posted on 08/27/2014 10:29:03 AM PDT by Paine in the Neck (Socialism consumes EVERYTHING)
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To: expat2
And therein lies the problem. Maybe Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker can take this on. He already successfully beat the teachers union in that state.
18 posted on 08/27/2014 10:36:35 AM PDT by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: Sergio

>>Same holds true of police, no matter how poorly or illegally an officer has acted, his brothers and sisters in blue will NOT speak up against him.<<

There was an officer here on FR who said he has spoken up and all it resulted in was harassment coming back at him for not following the standard code of ethics, stand with your brother officer in blue, protect the blue line at all costs.


19 posted on 08/27/2014 10:45:31 AM PDT by B4Ranch (Name your illness, do a Google & YouTube search with "hydrogen peroxide". Do it and be surprised.)
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To: FBD
Now I know why everyone is so gung ho,,, cha ching ♫
20 posted on 08/27/2014 10:58:17 AM PDT by ßuddaßudd (>> F U B O << "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?")
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