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A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son

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Re: A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son

#21

Post by Synaesthesia »

jacquesm wrote: post #13
Synaesthesia wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Western Europe and much of Asia, almost nil (countries like South Korea, Japan ...) In many countries, I'm afraid it's quite common, abuse of police power is nothing strange here. I've had it happen to me.

Where are you located?

South Africa (Pretoria). And by, I've had that happen to me, I mean Police intimidation, not a flashbang in my chest. For that sort of thing see Palestine, Iraq etc However we see abuse of Police power very often here.

Re: A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son

#22

Post by anigbrowl »

Good grief. SWAT teams in the US are utterly out of control. It's one thing to have resources for the relatively rare armed robbery/hostage/mass shooter situation, to respond to an outbreak of violence; it's quite another to be using them for drug raids and other contexts where they initiate or are the sole cause of violence. This goes hand in hand with the confrontation-obsessed gun culture we have, in which a subset of gun owners dwell constantly on the omnipresent risks of crime and the need for elephant-grade stopping power, despite the clear long-term trend of falling crime.

The Cato institute has worked with journalist Radley Balko (who is the expert in this area) to produce a map of botched SWAT raids: http://www.cato.org/raidmap

I really see no other course for citizens other than to start attending public meetings and speaking up whenever public figures spout truisms about the safety of law enforcement officers being top priority. It's not top priority, that's why they get paid the big bucks - to put the safety of law-abiding citizens above their own.

Re: A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son

#23

Post by itbeho »

I was at a State Park in California recently and had a friendly talk with a ranger about local places to visit. It was hard not to notice the AR-15 and Shotgun mounted in his truck, as well as the sidearm on his hip. I'd never seen that before in all my years of camping with family.

Re: A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son

#24

Post by ceejayoz »

astrodust wrote: post #3
opendais wrote: post #2

This is truly awful. The sheer lack of restraint involved in this raid is sickening. :/

I'm not normally a fan of litigation, but in this case they should sue the police department into the ground. If this behaviour was way too expensive to sustain because of liabilities, they'd have to curtail it. Complaints are something they just ignore. Settlements hurt . If this was some national security incident where the nephew was about to activate a nuclear weapon this sort of force might be justified. That it…

The sad thing about settlements is the town just raises taxes a little to pay for it. The cops won't lose pay or rank.

Re: A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son

#27

Post by rayiner »

This was the result of a no-knock warrant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-knock_warrant, which allows police to enter a home without prior warning, on the theory that giving notice will allow people inside to destroy evidence. They are almost uniquely a product of the drug war. One can imagine very few situations outside of drugs were evidence could be so easily destroyed as to justify a no-knock warrant.

Re: A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son

#28

Post by tlrobinson »

astrodust wrote: post #3
opendais wrote: post #2

This is truly awful. The sheer lack of restraint involved in this raid is sickening. :/

I'm not normally a fan of litigation, but in this case they should sue the police department into the ground. If this behaviour was way too expensive to sustain because of liabilities, they'd have to curtail it. Complaints are something they just ignore. Settlements hurt . If this was some national security incident where the nephew was about to activate a nuclear weapon this sort of force might be justified. That it…

"Settlements hurt"

...the taxpayers. But probably just a few dollars per individual per year, so not enough to cause enough outrage to change things.

Re: A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son

#29

Post by silverbax88 »

iagooar wrote: post #25

When I read stuff like this, I'm really happy that I am not living in the US. It sounds so crazy to a European person, I can't really imagine how Americans manage to normally live their lives.

This sounds crazy to Americans, too. This isn't happening everywhere and the only accounts are those like this online.
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