I agree. I found myself in similar situations in Iraq. "Wrong house" happens, that's why you want to minimize the damage while still overwhelming the occupants. It can definitely be done, it just has to be done properly. Practice, training. Carelessly killing a little girl b/c you're too stupid to keep your finger off the trigger unless you've ID'd a real threat? That's jail time. SWAT teams should be held to a higher standard what with their "elite" status. There's no excuse for this to happen with them.
“I agree. I found myself in similar situations in Iraq. “Wrong house” happens, that’s why you want to minimize the damage while still overwhelming the occupants. It can definitely be done, it just has to be done properly. Practice, training. Carelessly killing a little girl b/c you’re too stupid to keep your finger off the trigger unless you’ve ID’d a real threat? That’s jail time. SWAT teams should be held to a higher standard what with their “elite” status. There’s no excuse for this to happen with them. “
SWAT has become keeping up with the Jones, police style. The big city has a SWAT, so to be a REAL police force, Podink Nowhere has to have one too. Research has shown most of this nation’s SWAT teams have little effort or resources for proper recruitment, training, or even a valid mission. That is one of the misuse of SWAT. If kept only for special situations, most would sit and do nothing, not even having the funds for proper training. Suddenly, the bar for using SWAT drops like a stone.
Add to that, most of these SWAT guys are just thrill seeking adrenaline junkies. What other attraction is there to SWAT work? You know you are going to be acting violently toward people, including innocent people. The want to play soldier. But they don’t have the stones to do it in the military, where the odds of someone actually offering violence back goes up. They literally don’t know what they are doing.
And ya, they should be held to a standard equal to the extreme violence and danger their misuse creates. If they can’t handle that level of responsibility, and want protected from it, then clearly they are not confident in their own professionalism and expertise.
Yeah, but this isn't Iraq and Americans are not enemy combatants.
BTW, regardless of training, sh*t can happen and does happen. It's why I mentioned in #68, these teams should only be used when it involves those suspected of being very violent individuals or those with a history of violence. In this incident they were on target, located the suspect, and still screwed some innocent out of their life.