So, America is the "Land of the Free"? Not if you look closely. In fact, you don't have to even do that any more.
Question is, what are we going to do about it?
Posted on 04/18/2014 6:21:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Regardless of how people feel about Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management over his cattle’s grazing rights, a lot of Americans were surprised to see TV images of an armed-to-the-teeth paramilitary wing of the BLM deployed around Bundy’s ranch.
They shouldn’t have been. Dozens of federal agencies now have Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to further an expanding definition of their missions. It’s not controversial that the Secret Service and the Bureau of Prisons have them. But what about the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? All of these have their own SWAT units and are part of a worrying trend towards the militarization of federal agencies — not to mention local police forces.
“Law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier,” journalist Radley Balko writes in his 2013 book Rise of the Warrior Cop. “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.”
The proliferation of paramilitary federal SWAT teams inevitably brings abuses that have nothing to do with either drugs or terrorism. Many of the raids they conduct are against harmless, often innocent, Americans who typically are accused of non-violent civil or administrative violations.
Take the case of Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif., who was “visited” by a SWAT team from the U.S. Department of Education in June 2011. Agents battered down the door of his home at 6 a.m., dragged him outside in his boxer shorts, and handcuffed him as they put his three children (ages 3, 7, and 11) in a police car for two hours while they searched his home. The raid was allegedly intended to uncover information on Wright’s estranged wife, Michelle, who hadn’t been living with him and was suspected of college financial-aid fraud.
The year before the raid on Wright, a SWAT team from the Food and Drug Administration raided the farm of Dan Allgyer of Lancaster, Pa. His crime was shipping unpasteurized milk across state lines to a cooperative of young women with children in Washington, D.C., called Grass Fed on the Hill. Raw milk can be sold in Pennsylvania, but it is illegal to transport it across state lines. The raid forced Allgyer to close down his business.
Brian Walsh, a senior legal analyst with the Heritage Foundation, says it is inexplicable why so many federal agencies need to be battle-ready: “If these agencies occasionally have a legitimate need for force to execute a warrant, they should be required to call a real law-enforcement agency, one that has a better sense of perspective. The FBI, for example, can draw upon its vast experience to determine whether there is an actual need for a dozen SWAT agents.”
Since 9/11, the feds have issued a plethora of homeland-security grants that encourage local police departments to buy surplus military hardware and form their own SWAT units. By 2005, at least 80 percent of towns with a population between 25,000 and 50,000 people had their own SWAT team. The number of raids conducted by local police SWAT teams has gone from 3,000 a year in the 1980s to over 50,000 a year today.
Once SWAT teams are created, they will be used. Nationwide, they are used for standoffs, often serious ones, with bad guys. But at other times they’ve been used for crimes that hardly warrant military-style raids. Examples include angry dogs, domestic disputes, and misdemeanor marijuana possession. In 2010, a Phoenix, Ariz., sheriff’s SWAT team that included a tank and several armored vehicles raided the home of Jesus Llovera. The tank, driven by the newly deputized action-film star Steven Seagal, plowed right into Llovera’s house. The incident was filmed and, together with footage of Seagal-accompanied immigration raids, was later used for Seagal’s A&E TV law-enforcement reality show.
The crime committed by Jesus Llovera was staging cockfights. During the sheriff’s raid, his dog was killed, and later all of his chickens were put to sleep.
Many veteran law-enforcement figures have severe qualms about the turn police work is taking. One retired veteran of a large metropolitan police force told me: “I was recently down at police headquarters for a meeting. Coincidently, there was a promotion ceremony going on and the SWAT guys looked just like members of the Army, except for the police shoulder patches. Not an image I would cultivate. It leads to a bad mindset.”
Indeed, the U.S. Constitution’s Third Amendment, against the quartering of troops in private homes, was part of an overall reaction against the excesses of Britain’s colonial law enforcement. “It wasn’t the stationing of British troops in the colonies that irked patriots in Boston and Virginia,” Balko writes. “It was England’s decision to use the troops for everyday law enforcement.”
There are things that can be done to curb the abuses without taking on the politically impossible job of disbanding SWAT units. The feds should stop shipping military vehicles to local police forces. Federal SWAT teams shouldn’t be used to enforce regulations, but should focus instead on potentially violent criminals. Cameras mounted on the dashboards of police cars have both brought police abuses to light and exonerated officers who were falsely accused of abuse. SWAT-team members could be similarly equipped with helmet cameras.
After all, if taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill and cede ground on their Fourth Amendment rights, they have the right to a transparent, accountable record of just what is being done in their name.
– John Fund is national-affairs columnist at National Review Online.
scary times indeed
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So, America is the "Land of the Free"? Not if you look closely. In fact, you don't have to even do that any more.
Question is, what are we going to do about it?
I don’t think you are taking into account the full anger of the American people.
This country is divided as at no other time since 1775 and 1861. Its almost 50-50. That cannot continue. One side has to win. It will not be decided at the ballot box.
The Republican party is not going to restore the constitutional republic. The US govt in its current form will not lay down and roll over. It has become too corrupted.
The genie is out of the bottle and its not going to be put back in.
As long as DHS continues to buy millions of rounds of handgun ammunition and we continue to buy millions of rounds long rifle ammunition, I know who will win the firefight.
In the meantime lets start electing people who will wind this SWAT team police force back down to becoming peace officers once again. Federal agencies don’t need their own SWAT team for every issue where citizens don’t follow the manual.
Sending ‘Brandenburgers’ against Americans is one thing, at least they’re federal employees. But the independent contractors, free agents, ‘operators’, Ronin, ‘camo-queers’—whatever they’re called ... the next thing after that is drones. This is all Reid and Obama, Brennan and Clinton.
We’ve got to replace these kids playing grownups with real grownups.
When was the last time you saw a policemen and didn’t feel threatened?”
Actually it was just last Saturday. We have two guys who direct traffic at our church service. While the service is going on they hang out in the snack bar. I needed to return an important call on my cell phone but I had a cup of coffee and a cup of fresh fruit in my hands. Set them down on the table by the policeman and asked him if he would watch them while I went outside. I knew they would be safe since it was obvious that he only ate donuts.
“The tank, driven by the newly deputized action-film star Steven Seagal, plowed right into Llovera’s house. The incident was filmed and, together with footage of Seagal-accompanied immigration raids, was later used for Seagal’s A&E TV law-enforcement reality show.”
WTF? A police sanctioned publicity stunt? And when did swat start ramming houses, not knowing what is on the other side of the wall? Not to mention such gratuitous damage should not be allowed.
How anyone can support cops anymore is baffling. Ends justify the means mentality. Even if the end is cockfighting and the means is squashing people under an armored vehicle.
“There’s no shortage of people wanting to be “a sniper” these days. It’s a great “pickup line” and an outstanding way to impress the chicks”
Why? No disrespect on soldier snipers, or even honest LE snipers. But a sniper isn’t exactly shinning knight. No King Arthur. Any chick impressed by that needs to think how cold blooded a sniper has to be, then apply that to herself.
Watch for demands by the gungrabbers for strict controls on “medium range sniper weapons”.
By United Nations definition that’s your standard scope sighted hunting rifle. The kind that slaughters millions of helpless lovable deer every year.
“We only want to ban assault rifles”
“Noboby’s coming to take your guns”
If the Feds don’t restrict the usage of their heavily armed SWAT teams, then the people will be forced to defend our liberty by returning fire. Not all sniping has to result in fatalities.
A BLM or Forestry agent patrolling the back country will quickly get his head on straight when his vehicle becomes the target.
A vehicle tire will do just fine. An aluminum airplane or helicopter engine can be disabled with a single shot. A drone airplane with a hole through the fuel tank or battery pack isn’t going to take off. A boat with a few holes in the hull won’t be patrolling the harbors and waterways. A manufacturing plant can be brought to a close if something as simple as the ventilation system is disabled.
To me, the solution is simple.
Remove the authority for federal agents to bear arms, off federal reservations. If a USDA employee needs to carry a firearm, he can get a carry permit, like any other civilian.
I have questions about these two pieces of it:
"There are things that can be done to curb the abuses without taking on the politically impossible job of disbanding SWAT units."
He concedes that it's politically impossible to disband these SWAT units...why?
"After all, if taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill and cede ground on their Fourth Amendment rights, they have the right to a transparent, accountable record..."
Isn't the issue that citizens cannot be compelled to cede their Fourth Amendment rights, regardless of how transparent the process?
I need to borrow yer crystal ball...
Keep it next to my Buddha statue...;-)
“But whoever fires first will lose the public’s support.”
Who version are you going to believe???
The media (any network, including FoxNews)???
The government???
The responding government agency spokesperson???
Some internet source??? (i.e.: Drudge, Breitbart, Infowars)??? Even FreeRepublic???
I’m not really trying to bust peoples chops about this, but we are already in heap big trouble Kemosabe...
I’m still trying to keep up and get through the menusha off all this flak being thrown out there...I have a pretty good idea about all of this personally, and it might even be similar to other’s opinions and overall analysis...
Like you said, it is the governments PR war to lose...I just do not see that happening with the overall media in their pocket...
I have to wonder what the solution will “really” be...
The bureaucracy that inspects and regulates porta potties - they want their own armored vehicles and SWAT Teams too. They’re tired of citizens giving them so much sh*t...
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