New ACLU report takes a snapshot of police militarization in the United States

The Washington Post ^ | June 24 at 9:29 AM | Radley Balko

[lwd]

The American Civil Liberties Union has released the results of its year-long study of police militarization.

{SNIP}

But we’ve already seen cases in which the mere factor that the resident of a home was a legal gun owner — in some cases by virtue of the fact that the owner had obtained some sort of state license — was used as an excuse to execute a full-on SWAT raid to serve a warrant for an otherwise nonviolent crime. Of the SWAT raids the ACLU studied in which police cited the possibility of finding a weapon in the home, they actually found a weapon just 35 percent of the time.

[Tea Party Terrorist]

The list of the unintended consequences caused by the drug war is almost rivaled by the one caused by the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

[VerySadAmerican]

I put all cops into the same category. Ignorant power hungry thugs who’ve never read the constitution and like to push people around.

[bike800]

And you would be wrong...

[NormsRevenge]

Next time I’m back in Minniesoda, I need to see if my Godson and Police Chief in his town has a battle tested ride.. He did time in Iraq, hope he lets me drive.

[ForYourChildren]

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

---Thomas Jefferson

[Fido969]

ACLU looking to protect the rights of ordinary citizen? How’d this happen?

[The Toll]

No Knock = No future with your kids. Memorize it you halfwits.

[Mears]

Ditto !

.

[reefdiver]

It had to happen I guess, me and the ACLU on the same page

[JmyBryan]

Bush’s fault!!! /s

[gaijin]

after a series of long, low-intensity wars, the soldiers act as cops, and later the cops act like soldiers.

[sergeantdave]

“used as an excuse to execute a full-on SWAT raid to serve a warrant for an otherwise nonviolent crime...”

If you don’t want Nazi SWAT invading your domicile, get off your fat butts, save the kitchen remodeling for next year, stop worshipping Mammon, and elect yourselves a Constitutional, pro-second amendment county sheriff.

I have one, and there are no raids by city cops or the feds on our homes.In fact, he has run two police chiefs out of our county. Protecting your home and family isn’t rocket science.

[sergeantdave]

Incidentally, the power that an elected county sheriff has is quite broad.

[nathanbedford]

. . incident reports for search warrant executions, especially in drug investigations, often contained no information about why the SWAT team was being sent in, other than to note that the warrant was “high risk,” or else provided otherwise unsubstantiated information such as “suspect is believed to be armed.” In case after case that the ACLU examined, when a SWAT team was deployed to search a person’s home for drugs, officers determined that a person was “likely to be armed” on the basis of suspected but unfounded gang affiliations, past weapons convictions, or some other factor that did not truly indicate a basis for believing that the person in question was likely to be armed at the moment of the SWAT deployment. Of course, a reasonable belief that weapons are present should not by itself justify a SWAT deployment. Given that almost half of American households have guns, use of a SWAT team could almost always be justified if this were the sole factor.

Yesterday we discussed the impact of the war on drugs on race in America here and today we are confronted with the impact of the war on drugs on the right to keep arms, on the right to be secure in our homes from unreasonable search and seizure, and on the right to be free of police violence.

At some point we conservatives will have to begin to face the issue whether the war on drugs is harming conservative values more than upholding them. Whether the civil disintegration caused by the use of drugs is exceeded by the collateral damage done to society in the war on drugs.

When can a conservative say the lines will have crossed?

[Jim Robinson]

Don’t f’n do drugs, stay out of jail. Pretty damn simple.

[Ace's Dad]

If you don’t want Nazi SWAT invading your domicile, get off your fat butts, save the kitchen remodeling for next year, stop worshipping Mammon, and elect yourselves a Constitutional, pro-second amendment county sheriff.

Well put, Sergeantdave. Getting to know your local chief of police, even if not elected or not even on our side, isn't a bad investment in your time either. Can't hurt if the guy knows your face. Good on you!

[tanknetter]

FYI, THIS is worth reading

Nicely summarizes the botched raid by an out of control SWAT-type team made up of officers from several small CT towns against a suspect who was presumed to be armed and dangerous. Result, dead suspect and no weapons in the house other than those the cops brought in with them.

THE RAID

At about 2 p.m. members of the team, including the nine stack members, dressed in body armor and wearing helmets, left the Easton EMS offices about two and a half miles from Dogwood Drive. Chief Solomon and the team leaders drove off in sports utility vehicles while the rest of the officers boarded their large armored transport. Instead of climbing inside, several of the men chose to stand on the transport's running boards.

The team headed up Sports Hill Road, men in helmets and armor hanging off the tank-like vehicle. As they rolled into the quiet neighborhood residents either ran into their homes in terror or let curiosity get the better of them, according to police reports. One woman followed the two snipers as they got off the transport and moved into the woods near Terebesi's house.

[LevinFan]

“I put all cops into the same category. Ignorant power hungry thugs who’ve never read the constitution and like to push people around.”

Oh they’ve read it, while wiping their rears with it. They pay just enough attention to invent loop holes. Case in point, there was an area recently that decided that because drug checkpoints were illegal, they set up fake drug checkpoints with signs. If you made any move to avoid it, ignoring that maybe people just don’t want to be harassed or abused by cops, they then pulled you over using that action to justify searching you.

Now any honest person would call it a drug checkpoint. But cops are never interested in being honest. Cops have about the same integrity as Obama.

[LevinFan]

“Don’t f’n do drugs, stay out of jail. Pretty damn simple.”

It is a lot more complicated than that, and you know it. ANY suspected offense has now become SWAT worthy. Raids are now done with minimal intelligence.
And with 80+K raids a year now, want to guess how many times these irresponsible nuts screw it up? Recently a family got raided over tea leaves in their trash. Last year, a small girl got burned by a police flashbang over a nonexistent meth lab. That isn’t acceptable.

Even if a bad raid doesn’t actually cause injury or death, it still leaves innocent people traumatized by the violent assault on their home. Or do you actually believe you can treat a family in this manner and have no lasting affects?

Cops are paid to take the risks, not pass them on to everyone else. If a cop has no more balls than a mall cop, why do we pay them more?