Your Local Police Force Has Been Militarized The Empire Turns Its Guns on the Citizenry

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.counterpunch.org/

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

In recent years American police forces have called out SWAT teams 40,000 or more times annually. Last year did you read in your newspaper or hear on TV news of 110 hostage or terrorist events each day? No. What then were the SWAT teams doing? They were serving routine warrants to people who posed no danger to the police or to the public.

Occasionally Washington think tanks produce reports that are not special pleading for donors. One such report is Radley Balko's "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America" (Cato Institute, 2006).

This 100-page report is extremely important and should have been published as a book. SWAT teams (Special Weapons and Tactics) were once rare and used only for very dangerous situations, often involving hostages held by armed criminals. Today SWAT teams are deployed for routine police duties. In the US today, 75-80% of SWAT deployments are for warrant service.

In a high percentage of the cases, the SWAT teams forcefully enter the wrong address, resulting in death, injury, and trauma to perfectly innocent people. Occasionally, highly keyed-up police kill one another in the confusion caused by their stun grenades.

Mr. Balko reports that the use of paramilitary police units began in Los Angeles in the 1960s. The militarization of local police forces got a big boost from Attorney General Ed Meese's "war on drugs" during the Reagan administration. A National Security Decision Directive was issued that declared drugs to be a threat to US national security. In 1988 Congress ordered the National Guard into the domestic drug war. In 1994 the Department of Defense issued a memorandum authorizing the transfer of military equipment and technology to state and local police, and Congress created a program "to facilitate handing military gear over to civilian police agencies."

Today 17,000 local police forces are equipped with such military equipment as Blackhawk helicopters, machine guns, grenade launchers, battering rams, explosives, chemical sprays, body armor, night vision, rappelling gear and armored vehicles. Some have tanks. In 1999, the New York Times reported that a retired police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, told the newspaper, "I was offered tanks, bazookas, anything I wanted." Balklo reports that in 1997, for example, police departments received 1.2 million pieces of military equipment

....

[Richard Steele]

1. kicked -n- rec'd

[Cleita]

2. Welcome to the Fourth Reich.n./t

[shance]

3. This is why Americans need to be focusing more LOCALLY than on Washington DC

Tip O Neill said all politics are local.

So is your power as a citizen.

Focus less and send less money to Washington, and work to build your community locally.

[Irreverend IX]

50. This is why any liberal who doesn't own guns should get some.

The police are not your friends.

[Jcrowley]

4. Overkill

Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America
by Radley Balko


Radley Balko is a policy analyst specializing in civil liberties issues and is the author of the Cato study, "Back Door to Prohibition: The New War on Social Drinking."

Executive Summary

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.

This paper presents a history and overview of the issue of paramilitary drug raids, provides an extensive catalogue of abuses and mistaken raids, and offers recommendations for reform.

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

[donkeyotay]

5. Yep, we went from "protect and serve" to the War on Drugs to the War

on Terror to just War. But still we are not safe. No, I think we need drones.

[CrispyQ]

38. All you had to do was ask!

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0124-03.htm

snip...

Military Builds Robotic Insects
by David Hambling

If you feel something crawling on your neck, it might be a wasp or a bee. Or it might be something much more dangerous.

Israel is developing a robot the size of a hornet to attack terrorists. And although the prototype will not fly for three years, killer Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, are much closer than that.


Crew members hande the WASP, one of the smallest operational UAVs.
Photo: Courtesy of USS HIGGINS DDG-76

British Special Forces already use 6-inch MAV aircraft called WASPs for reconnaissance in Afghanistan. The $3,000 WASP is operated with a Gameboy-style controller and is nearly silent, so it can get very close without being detected. A new development will reportedly see the WASP fitted with a C4 explosive warhead for kamikaze attacks on snipers. One newspaper dubbed it "The Talibanator."

=====

We are certainly good at thinking up ways to harm each other.

[Mandate My Ass]

6. It started in prisons and then moved into the general public

This is so wrong.

[formercia]

7. What's really interesting about the current 'Drug War'.

is that pot busts are priority over crank and crack. Seems like Big Tobacco doesn't like competition.

[12string]

11. competition

Big tobacco is not in competition with pot.Since most pot is
now domestically grown the CIA doesn't make any money
importing it.That is why the over the top prosecutions for
pot.

[crickets]

29. Bingo.

Follow the money. Works every time.

Welcome to DU, 12string! :hi:

[Richard D]

37. It's not big tobacco . . .

. . . that is the competition, it's big pharmaceutical companies. Why allow people to grow their own medicines when you can sell them drugs with tens of thousands of dollars profit per person?

[robertpaulsen]

8. Paul Craig Roberts: Bush is like Hitler.

Bush is like Hitler. He blames defeats on his military commanders, not on his own insane policy. Like Hitler, he protects himself from reality with delusion. In his last hours, Hitler was ordering non-existent German armies to drive the Russians from Berlin.

By manipulating Bush and provoking a military crisis in which the US stands to lose its army in Iraq, the neoconservatives hope to revive the implementation of their plan for US conquest of the Middle East. They believe they can use fear, "honor," and the aversion of macho Americans to ignoble defeat to expand the conflict in response to military disaster. The neocons believe that the loss of an American army would be met with the electorate's demand for revenge. The barriers to the draft would fall, as would the barriers to the use of nuclear weapons.

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01062007.html

For a guy who used to serve in the Reagan administration, he sure has straightened out his values.

[Xenotime]

12. my thoughts exactly

[northofdenali]

33. P. C. Roberts AND Cato?

OK. The sound you hear is me sweeping up the brains that just leaked out of my head.

[Fovea]

9. It was the war on drugs (aka brown people)

and we lost it years ago. Now the really dangerous drug gangsters are brewing meth in their suburban splitlevel or trailerpark trailer.

[troubleinwinter]

10. Good ol' Ed Meese. I remember him well.

As (California Governor) Reagan's chief of staff, Meese was instrumental in the decision to crack down on student protesters at People's Park in Berkeley, California, on May 15, 1969. Meese was widely criticized for escalating official response to the People's Park protest, during which law enforcement officers killed one student and seriously injured hundreds of others. Meese advised Reagan to declare a state of emergency in Berkeley, contrary to the recommendation of the Berkeley City Council, which led to a two-week occupation of the city by National Guard troops.

I remember the State Police and National Guard occupying our city. I remember the National guard bivouacked at the edge of town and rolling down our streets in tanks. I remember citizens being herded into confined areas and then tear gassed from helicopters.

Just imagine my joy when Reagan became president and Meese became US attorney general.

Meese was a seriously sickass mofo.

[Unperson]

13. 'We the People' are the real threat to the plutocrats.

Not Bin Laden or his ilk.

[Cleita]

15. Remember in Gladiator, when Maximus was told that he

who controls the mob, controls Rome or some words to that effect. It's really true. There are so few of them compared to how many of us. We really do have the power of numbers if we can get some charismatic leader to mobilize the proletariat, someone who speaks to the ordinary citizen, something that our comfortably rich politicians can't seem to be motivated enough to do. It would also have to be someone who is willing to put their words into action.

[Kagemusha]

30. The Roman Emperors didn't have machine guns.

Though they did have various forms of armored cavalry.

[Cleita]

45. Our emperors don't have enough to completely squash us.

Even if they unleashed the National Guard on us like they did in the sixties, it would only postpone the outcome with a populace, who would be even more enraged. It happened before and the people prevailed in the end in the sixties and they would again.

However, the mob I was thinking of isn't the one that will be breaking windows and starting riots. If people unite in demanding accountability from this administration, they will be hard pressed to resist if we use the power of our numbers. This is why they keep the ordinary citizen frightened with boogeymen and struggling to survive. It's how they keep the mob from organizing and demanding change.

[The Rubicon]

40. Threats to plutocrats

You are right of course, and that is the way the Founding Fathers intended it by including the 2nd Amendment. Which is why I find it so ironic so many people on this board are chomping at the bit to vote for politicians whose goal it is to disarm through so called "Assault Weapons Bans". I'd like to make one thing clear right now for those who are reading: True assault weapons are select fire. Meaning with the flip of a switch the user can alternate between full-auto and semi-auto. Unless you can find one made prior to May 1986, and have loads of cash(between $8000-$25,000)to pony up in addition to a $200 Federal tax stamp fee, and 6 month back ground check, good luck acquiring one of those. Obama is for banning the sale or transfer of all semi-automatic firearms(not true assault weapons which have already been effectively banned by the procedure required to obtain one listed above), except of course those carried by his own armed protection. "For the children" of course. Hillary? Don't even get me started. So far Bill Richardson is the only Democrat running I would even consider voting for. The 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with hunting. It has everything to do with protecting the individual citizens from tyrannical government. Read the Declaration of Independence for those who need a reminder.

[derby378]

49. Why do you still use the term "assault weapon?"

I don't use it anymore than I absolutely have to. Josh Sugarmann of the Violence Policy Center created the term in 1988 and used it to apply to any semi-automatic rifle that had either a protuding pistol grip, polymer handgrips and buttstock, and/or a magazine that held more than 10 rounds. He repeated it over and over and over until the name stuck.

I just call them "semi-automatic firearms" and leave it at that. Don't play the frame game of the gun-control camp; they've learned how to use the power of words to win people over to their side.

Other than that, welcome to DU! :hi:

[RamboLiberal]

14. Agree with this - note how they dress like like some Star Wars

Imperial Storm Troppers in Black Protective Gear. Remember the story of the elderly grandmother cut down defending her home against police breaking in. Look at the local cops, many are now ex-military with the requisite mil-spec haircut. Sure don't look like the cops I saw growing up.

They now train at institutes like Blackwater. Have sniper teams.

I'm not totally against all of this. But I do say we need to be careful. Funny thing is I remember reading a story warning about this several years ago in of all places Soldier of Fortune magazine.

[DrewL]

27. Elderly Mother...

Who managed to wound at least one cop serving a legal search warrant.

[northofdenali]

32. Yes, and

you read every day of "accidental" raids at "wrong addresses" from their database.

Welcome to DU, DrewL :hi:

[WinkyDink]

16. A boon to Fascism and Corporate Greed alike!

[Octafish]

17. Glad I used ''Search'' function.

Otherwise I'd have been a dupe.

Thanks, 'Dreamy!

[PreacherCasey]

18. http://www.blackpanther.org/

[NobleCynic]

19. Sometimes the CATO Institute is dead on.

It hurt saying that. I think I'm going to sit down for a bit.

[CoffeeCat]

20. This is why I'm scared about pleading "not guilty" today...

I know this is a minor thing, but I have been stewing about it--because I don't trust the
police anymore.

A cop pulled me over the other day--for speeding. I was speeding. He didn't give me
a ticket for speeding, but he gave me one for having an improperly registered vehicle.

We had just purchase the car, and we were told we had 30 days to renew the title. I was
stopped by the police on day 20. I said to the officer, "I was told I had 30 days to transfer
the title and register the plates onto this car." He said, "I could have written you a $189.00 ticket,
but instead you get this $89.00 one."

A few days later, I got the title transferred--and the woman at the counter told me that the ticket
I got went against our state law---that I did have 30 days. So, I went to court today, and
pleaded "not guilty".

So...they set a trial date. Good grief...all for a traffic violation!

I am concerned about the ramifications of this---because our police seem like they've run
off the rails in the past several years. I know the majority of police officers are just
nice, decent people--doing a very tough job. However, BushCo seems to have emboldened the
idea that brute force and thuggery are now acceptable.

[Straight Shooter]

21. In your case, I'm willing to bet they're trying to fill the city coffers.

Nothing helps the budget like a bunch of tickets written by an intimidating officer.

I have almost always gotten along with cops, despite the occasional being pulled over and writing of a ticket. But there was one who pulled me over and he scared me so bad with his threats, I almost peed my pants. I thought he was going to grab me, jerk me out of my car, arrest me and have my car towed. I was being polite; what the hell was his problem?

My crime? I was 5 miles over the speed limit in a neighborhood. This was in Kingsport, Tennessee, 20 years ago. Still gives me the creeps to think about that guy.

[truedelphi]

28. I fought a ticket issued in Tiburon California for illegally

parking. (I wasn't illegally parking.)

The ticket was dismissed - but the city of Tiburon still charges you $ 20 just because you were issued a citation

That's probably illegal also but How would you know? (I imagine you'd have to research and find out the CIvil Code they are violating) And how much more of your time are you gonna spend to fight the extra $ 20?

[SanCristobal]

44. Never, NEVER plead guilty to a ticket!

ALWAYS plead not guilty. This lets you plea bargain, and if you are particularly lucky the cop won't bother to show up to trial and you can demand the case be dismissed.

ALWAYS FIGHT TICKETS! It can save you thousands in insurance costs, the judge will almost always plea bargain to a lesser charge.

[unkachuck]

22. what does this mean?....

....us citizens will now have to arm ourselves in kind in order to defend our lives and property against state terrorists?....

"In 1994 the Department of Defense issued a memorandum authorizing the transfer of military equipment and technology to state and local police,..."

"Balklo reports that in 1997, for example, police departments received 1.2 million pieces of military equipment"

....thanks Bill and Hillary....

[calimary]

23. Whooda thunkit - something actually worthwhile that comes out of

the Cato Institute, of all places. One of the viper pits most of the time. CONservative strongholds. I guess everybody has an "off day," even these people.

[Vodid]

24. I think progressives and libertarians have more in common...

than progressives and neocons, or libertarians and neocons. We should be open to all alliances, even if they are just for specific issues, or are temporary. Personally, I like some of the libertarian thoughts.

[calimary]

25. Well, SOME of them. Welcome to DU, btw!

As I understand it (and let me just say here that I'm not completely sure that I DO understand it completely), libertarians don't just want the government out of your life, and your bedroom, and your doctor's office. They want government out of EVERYTHING. Which I think is a little reckless. We need government intervention in some cases and places, and to rectify gross injustices on a larger - or national - scale. I think Hurricane Katrina proved that once and for all.

Sometimes, though, I've observed that libertarianism seems to be a label under which some CONservatives seek refuge, when they're too chicken to come straight out and say they're CONservative, or republi-CON. In the same way that schmucks like bill orally loudly proclaim themselves "originalists" or "traditionalists." It's just a bullshit buzz phrase (another phrase or slogan or name that they hijack, and then thoroughly pervert) because people like him are too chicken to say what they really are, or to have people know which way they really lean.

[benEzra]

48. Don't confuse generic libertarians with Libertarians...

the Libertarian party does indeed want to abolish all kinds of things. But one can be a libertarian (small "l") on social issues (personal health/safety decisions, nonhunting gun ownership, family decisions, sexual matters, first and fourth amendment issues, etc.) and still believe in a safety net.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

31. Right on.

I'm a libertarian out of a liberal genesis.

[cosmicdot]

26. saw a photo in the 'town' of Farmville, VA

newspaper of 'local police' practicing in full riot gear ... rather shocking ... totally unnecessary ... wasteful spending ... poor priorities of community needs

http://www.farmvilleva.com/

The population was 6,845 at the 2000 census http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmville,_Virginia#Demographics

of course, one never knows when those students of Hampden-Sydney College and Longwood University might take to the streets <sarcasm>

that paper was circa 1996, 10 years ago, when Clinton was in the White House; and,
a Republican, cashing-in gov't profiteer (the Cohen Group opened shop in 2001), and Barrick Gold advisor William Cohen was Defense Secretary

[rolfboy]

34. I was just talking about this with a friend last night...

I think the foundations for fascism have been laid in place, right down to the local police level. Even if (when) one of the good guys takes the presidency in 08/09 (and the congress stays with Nancy P), I think it's going to be very very difficult (if not impossible) to reverse the course of the fascism that Bush/Dick have instituted.
Americans (by that i mean those that Bush/Dick talk down to) have already become accustomed to their reduction in civil liberties. they won't miss it anymore. the 100,000 or so DU'ers are drop in the ocean of mainstream 'Merica.
I know this is way cynical, and if someone can convince me otherwise (that will wash this black cloud of cynicism away), i am way open to it.
thanks for reading,
and thanks for posting the original article!
Robert

[babydollhead]

35. my kids, 7th and 8th graders, were victims of police brutality

at a school dance, last spring, the Swissvale Police were called to drive two kids home who had been fighting, the teachers and chaperones had quelled the problem, but the kids had no way home. The police stormed in, threw tear gas packets, wouldn't let anyone leave the gym, bashed and arrested the black d.j. The kids were doubly traumatized, since, just the day before, the exact two policemen , had come into school, to talk for Career Day, about the great pride they take in "protecting and Serving" 4 ambulances were called. Asthmatic kids were sickened. it was awful. now my son hates police.

[Blackhatjack]

36. So Timely --We Had Teen Shot Thru Front Door and Killed By Local SWAT Team in NC

The local police had a search warrant and an arrest warrant to serve at a house shared by four teens. The alleged crime was that one or more had stolen an XBox360 from a local college student.

They went to the front door, announced they were the police, the young boy walked to the front door while his dog was barking. The SWAT team began using a battering ram against the door, and before the door was knocked down one of the SWAT team fired three times 'through the door' striking the boy and killing him.

The office that killed the boy was indicted for 2nd degree murder, and within 24 hrs the grand jury foreman said he got lots of calls from other jury members and the next day he went to the judge and said he checked the wrong box on the indictment form, that they did not indict the officer.

The teen killed was the son of a prominent civil lawyer.

This tragic event is all too uncommon as these 'local SWAT teams' receive too little training, and are used in situations where overwhelming force is not needed.

[shadowknows69]

39. Where do you think the vast majority of new cops are probably coming from

the killing fields of Iraq ands Afghanistan. The police are going to be a bit trigger happy for a while.

[Heywood J]

41. A Kevlar vest should never be a must-have purchase.

Today 17,000 local police forces are equipped with such military equipment as Blackhawk helicopters, machine guns, grenade launchers, battering rams, explosives, chemical sprays, body armor, night vision, rappelling gear and armored vehicles. Some have tanks. In 1999, the New York Times reported that a retired police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, told the newspaper, "I was offered tanks, bazookas, anything I wanted." Balklo reports that in 1997, for example, police departments received 1.2 million pieces of military equipment


Either society has gone so far downhill (e.g. rampant gun crime) or the state is carrying far too much firepower. Both are equally repugnant. How long until that Kevlar vest becomes the next Tickle-Me-Elmo? "Only the best for my Johnny! I bought him Dragon Skin 4.0!"




Sounds like in addition to a fifty-state strategy that there also needs to be a 10,000-city-and-county strategy.

[benEzra]

47. It's certainly not the crime rate...

Either society has gone so far downhill (e.g. rampant gun crime) or the state is carrying far too much firepower. Both are equally repugnant. How long until that Kevlar vest becomes the next Tickle-Me-Elmo? "Only the best for my Johnny! I bought him Dragon Skin 4.0!"

It's certainly not the crime rate--the U.S. homicide rate is still near a 40-year low. I think the primary reason for the escalation was the War on Drugs, and the mentality that it is, indeed, a literal war.

You don't need tanks for police work, but they are useful in wars...

[Occulus]

42. Piece of info: while working for the USPS, I have seen many pieces of mail

coming from manufacturers of products intended for use by police, security guards, and other forms of law enforcement. The equipment I've seen advertised to them is definitely paramilitary in nature. I've seen pretty much all the items mentioned in the OP advertised to police units all over the country.

This is bad to worse, and it needs to be stopped.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

43. "TO PROTECT AND SERVE BUSHCO CORPORATIONS" w/ graphics...

[Jcrowley]

46. Can't stand

Dick Taters