Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America

[AX10]

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476

"Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.

These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects."

[acmejack]

1. Download paper free here.

To heel with supporting Cato...

http://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/balko_whitepaper_2006.pdf

[theanarch]

2. funny how it took the Cato Inst.

to publicize this, being so RW as to appear libertarian on occasion (but in all fairness, Cato Inst. is fairly consistant in standing up for civil liberties...as defined by loony conservatives). I've always regarded the so-called 'war on drugs' to really be a jihad against civil liberties; and the militarization of the police as the first step towards a nationalized police state. With the Patriot Act (among others), we've moved far beyond that, to what i call the Nazi-ification of law, and the Gestapo-ization of law enforcement...

[AX10]

4. I agree that CATO does stand up for civil liberties.

They are not "team players", which is a good thing in this case.

[whistle]

3. Laying siege to America's castles, recall the raids in Philadelphia

...on the homes of Black Panthers back in 1967-70? Well, they have just brought it up to date and have franchised the process into a cottage industry for American entrepreneurs.

http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIc.htm

APRIL 23 (under authority of the order of April 14), 1976

THE FBI'S COVERT ACTION PROGRAM TO DESTROY THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY



INTRODUCTION

In August 1967, the FBI initiated a covert action program -- COINTELPRO -- to disrupt and "neutralize" organizations which the Bureau characterized as "Black Nationalist Hate Groups." 1 The FBI memorandum expanding the program described its goals as:

1. Prevent a coalition of militant black nationalist groups....

2. Prevent the rise of a messiah who could unify and electrify the militant nationalist movement ... Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael and Elijah Muhammad all aspire to this position....

3. Prevent violence on the part of black nationalist groups....

4. Prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining respectability by discrediting them....

5. . . . prevent the long-range growth of militant black nationalist organizations, especially among youth. 2


<more examples> http://revcom.us/a/v21/1010-019/1013/philly.htm

[BEZERKO]

5. I completely agree,

there was a great article I read about two years ago about a disturbing trend of police squads that were being militarized. Most police uniforms pretty much anywhere more resemble military uniforms than police uniforms. I think it was a reaction to progressives who were becoming politically active, a reaction that I also find disturbing.

[theanarch]

6. it's worse than you think...

about four years ago, i got popped for speeding (e.g. doing the speed limit in a car with a Green Party bumpersticker) in a hick township close to where i live. I went to municiple court to contest the ticket, and couldn't get over the township prosecutor: younger guy (mid-30's?) decked out in an all-black commando outfit, complete with jump-boots, and a black-leather, S&M-ish shoulder-holster for his .25 cal. Barretta...and he was just the fucking prosecutor!!!

[AX10]

8. If your theory is correct:

"Most police uniforms pretty much anywhere more resemble military uniforms than police uniforms. I think it was a reaction to progressives who were becoming politically active..."

Then we have another internal threat to deal with.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. The "War on Drugs" has been an all out assault on the constitution and

civil liberties for decades. Ending this $40 Billion a year boondoggle should be one of our party's top prioriries- instead, too many are terrified of touching it due to years of being reflexively allergic to labels like "soft on crime". Meanwhile, right wing libertarian types have recognized that it's a cruel waste of life and resources.

All the more reason why I think our party's SMARTEST strategy- (as opposed to lamely trying to out-Jesus the GOP)- would be to try to peel off the disaffected Libertarian wing of the GOP, and socially libertarian moderates.

The GOP can't learn the lesson of Terri Schiavo, even though that situation bit them on the ass- the far right "left behind" fundy gang is wedged too deeply into the party's base and calculations. Unfortunately, we haven't learned the lesson, either, which is that there is a strong small-l libertarian streak in the voting populace that is not being addressed by either party. People who think it's ridiculous that we let murderers and rapists out on the street so we can make room in prison for non-violent drug offenders. People who are nauseated at the thought of riot gear-clad cops pointing assault weapons at cancer-ridden grannies for smoking pot.

I think many of them would be willing to consider voting Democratic- even if it meant support for left-leaning ideas like a SPHC system- if and only if at the same time we argued strongly and firmly for fiscal sanity regarding illegal wars and no-bid boondoggles, and unapologetically stood up for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the rights of consenting adults to control their own bodies & for citizens to be secure in their homes.

[windbreeze]

9. Remember the 10,000 "criminals" rounded up all at once ...

nationwide in 2005???...and how the exercise was carried out with police forces working together from the national right down to the local/county level....did we ever hear how many of those people were ever prosecuted for whatever reason they were supposedly picked up????
then remember also the next 9,000 or more that were rounded up earlier in 2006 in the same manner....
now what the hell do we think those are??? once in a lifetime deals...(it's already happened twice that we've been told about) or practice runs for all police forces to work together...or are they practice runs for the future rounding up a particular group of so many at a time??? how about those detention centers being built...what for? who for?
Do we really know what is going on behind the scenes??? who is being watched???or spied upon? Do we think the militarization of our police forces...the tanks in the street...the military type uniforms...aren't for a reason? It's common knowledge that there are lists with people's names on them...what for?? for the ones against the "you're either with us, or against us" mindset???? for gays/lesbians, for blacks/arabs/jews/muslims, for those married more than once...for those who've had abortions...or just plain criminals??? who?? exactly..grassrooters/activists maybe??
I was asked about a year ago, if I had made it onto a list yet...why?
because I was talking about * and I wasn't being nice...by who? a high ranking active non-com that I know, who was visiting family...I have known him since he was a little kid...was I surprised that he asked me that...hell yes....was he serious as a heart attack, again hell yes!!...and he was telling how they have to spy on their co workers...(which I think is dastardly)...
Anything that's being done, is being done for a reason...Most likely we are expected to get used to seeing militarily dressed individuals in our streets...now the real question is WHY?? (and I can come to some very frightening conclusions all on my own)
windbreeze