Does this piss you off? It sure does me...

[Redman]

Apparently we should now send non-armed police officers to knock quietly on the doors of crack houses so we don't infringe anyones civil liberties. :rolleyes:

Ronald Fraser: Local SWAT raids can do more harm than good

By Ronald Fraser

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

You and your law-abiding neighbors in Ohio might be just one street address away from a life-threatening, midnight raid by a local paramilitary police unit. As these so-called SWAT squads increasingly become America's favored search warrant delivery service, bungled raids — including many to the wrong address — have skyrocketed. In these assaults on private property, scores of innocent citizens, police officers and nonviolent offenders have died. :rolleyes:

In a recent CATO Institute report titled "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America," Radley Balko describes how "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 raids — as many as 40,000 per year — terrorize nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders and wrongly targeted civilians who are awakened in the dead of night as teams of heavily armed paramilitary units, dressed not as police officers but as soldiers, invade their homes.

Botched Ohio raids

In Elyria earlier this year, Balko reports, police smashed through Jerry Agee's front door at 6 a.m. while Agee was cooking eggs. Agee's girlfriend had just taken a shower and was ordered to come out of the bedroom nude, with her hands up. Police refused to let her get dressed. After the police realized they had raided the wrong home, they searched a while longer and then left without an apology.

In 1993, Akron police, clad in black, knocked down the front door and rushed into the apartment of a 32-year-old woman and her three young children. She did not realize the invaders were the police until her children were forced, face-down, onto the floor at gunpoint. The police had raided the wrong house, and later said, "It didn't look like any drug house."

SWAT origins

How did the once-trusted neighborhood cop become a serious threat to life and privacy on the home front? Originally, Los Angeles officials formed the nation's first SWAT units in response to civil riots and hostage-taking and bomb-toting radical groups in the 1960s. But by 1995, one study found 89 percent of the nation's police departments, including 65 percent of smaller towns in the 25,000-50,000 population range, had a paramilitary unit.

As the violence-prone '60s faded away, SWAT squads found a new lease on life in the emerging tough-on-drugs culture of the 1970s. By 1995, serving search warrants, mostly in no-knock "drug raids," accounted for 75 percent of the actions of the nation's SWAT squads.

Threats to liberty

These SWAT squads have become more and more of a threat to our civil liberties.

First, they depend on notoriously unreliable informants when picking raid targets. Self-serving and ill-informed sources often send raids to wrong addresses.

Second, SWAT teams trained by U.S. Army Ranger and Navy Seal units blur the line between war and law enforcement. Citizens are then treated as if they are, in fact, combatants.

Third, the use of military assault weapons and tactics — nighttime raids, crashing through front doors and setting off stun grenades inside homes — actually turn otherwise nonviolent situations into violent confrontations when startled occupants try to arm and defend themselves.

Finally, by 1990 (the last year for which the information has been made public), 38 percent of all police departments, 51 percent of all sheriff departments and 94 percent of all state police departments in the U.S. received money from the sale of boats, cars and other assets seized during drug raids. This money is then used to outfit more SWAT teams for more asset-seizing raids — a practice that serves as a license for SWAT teams to confiscate private property for their own use.

To rein in out-of-control SWAT units, Ohio's state and local governments should limit the use of these squads to their original purposes; end corrupting asset forfeiture policies; and pass laws that safeguard families' rights to the privacy and sanctity of their homes.

Ronald Fraser, Ph.D., writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty Project, a Washington-based civil liberties organization. Write him at fraserr@erols.com.

http://www.journal-news.com/o/conten...00406swat.html

[squadcar]

He needs to open his eyes and shut his mouth, and most of his examples are from the early 90's.

:D

[jamez]

This leads me to believe that the owner of these 'crack houses' is potentially the owner and doesn't want it traced back to them.

Next thing you know the issuing of tickets for speeding is going to done away with and you'll just get pulled over and get a stern talking to. Forget about those that run away. :rolleyes:

[Norm357]

He needs to open his eyes and shut his mouth, and most of his examples are from the early 90's.

:D

I agree with you, but I can cite two cases that happened this week, where SWAT kicked in the wrong door, and one other case that happend on the TV show Dallas SWAT where the wrong house was targeted.

I think sometimes, the agencies doing the no knocks, need much better intel.

[madsnax]

I agree with you, but I can cite two cases that happened this week, where SWAT kicked in the wrong door, and one other case that happend on the TV show Dallas SWAT where the wrong house was targeted.

I think sometimes, the agencies doing the no knocks, need much better intel.

Knocks? What knocks? I thought that they don't have to knock anymore...

[Oldbillplod]

Apparently we should now send non-armed police officers to knock quietly on the doors of crack houses so we don't infringe anyones civil liberties

We do all the time;)

[worknk9s]

Yeah I saw that on Dallas Swat. That house on the show was one house made in to a duplex with one address. No two front doors, or anything displaying two residences. Although that was a weird circumstance Intel should have been better. The CI they used probably won't be used again.

We had a mistake like that where I live. There were actually two identical houses on the same street with numbers missing off one. Needless to say they took the city to the bank, and the house that got hit was a city employee for 20 some odd years. Talkin' about sticking it to your boss.

[ObMax1212]

My uncle had his door kicked in by SWAT because his son looked similar to someone they had a warrant for. It was funny hearing about them dragging his nude wife out of bed, but I think they probably weren't amused.

[retdetsgt]

If they do their job right, they won't hit wrong houses. Every time our guys have entered the wrong house it was because someone took some short cuts and didn't do the preliminary investigation right.

Knock or no knock has nothing to do with it.

[chewy]

Just more proof that we need to change our hiring processes... Obviously, when the Trolls come to RP and find out that not only can they become cops with their extensive sorted drug use and criminal back ground, but can also join directly into SWAT with no other street time this is the kind of thing that happens!





:D

[chewy]

My uncle had his door kicked in by SWAT because his son looked similar to someone they had a warrant for. It was funny hearing about them dragging his nude wife out of bed, but I think they probably weren't amused.

I can say from experience that it's no fun for us either as most of the nude people I've had to pull out of bed were anything BUT attractive!

I agree with retdetsgt, the majority of these cases that I've seen or read about could be followed back to one major problem, people too dam lazy to do thier job properly. Someone gets a "hot" tip of drug activity and because everyone likes to feel cool in thier raid gear they go kick down doors without doing any, or doing very little, follow up investigation or inquiry. Simple little things like verifying the correct address or persons get clouded over by some wannabe gungho cops that are soooo keyed up to do "fun" stuff that they get excited and just jump into it. Not only does this make us all look bad but also has 3000% better chances of getting someone killed! I was once told by a veteran Milw PD LT, after we had chased a b/g and I was a little "rough" in the detention process, that sometimes you need to stop and take a breath before proceeding just to let your mind catch up with your body. I think that applies to all aspects of LE, yes it's fun to go kick the door and have 12 people all screaming different things at the top of their lungs to the point where NO ONE knows what the hecks going on but it's better to take a step back and verify the info properly before taking a chance of getting people hurt.

[RemyG]

First, ...

Second, ...

Third, ...

Finally, ...

Man, looks like a 10th grade writing essay written at the last moment :-X

[Norm357]

If they do their job right, they won't hit wrong houses. Every time our guys have entered the wrong house it was because someone took some short cuts and didn't do the preliminary investigation right.

Knock or no knock has nothing to do with it.

Thats what I was trying to say.;)