- Oct 7, 2011
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Interesting read on the Militarization of our domestic Police Force.
Military-style units from government agencies are wreaking havoc on non-violent citizens.
By John Fund
Regardless of how people feel about Nevada rancher Cliven Bundys standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management over his cattles grazing rights, a lot of Americans were surprised to see TV images of an armed-to-the-teeth paramilitary wing of the BLM deployed around Bundys ranch.
They shouldnt have been. Dozens of federal agencies now have Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to further an expanding definition of their missions. Its not controversial that the Secret Service and the Bureau of Prisons have them. But what about the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? All of these have their own SWAT units and are part of a worrying trend towards the militarization of federal agencies not to mention local police forces.
Law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier, journalist Radley Balko writes in his 2013 book Rise of the Warrior Cop. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.
The proliferation of paramilitary federal SWAT teams inevitably brings abuses that have nothing to do with either drugs or terrorism. Many of the raids they conduct are against harmless, often innocent, Americans who typically are accused of non-violent civil or administrative violations.
Take the case of Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif., who was visited by a SWAT team from the U.S. Department of Education in June 2011. Agents battered down the door of his home at 6 a.m., dragged him outside in his boxer shorts, and handcuffed him as they put his three children (ages 3, 7, and 11) in a police car for two hours while they searched his home. The raid was allegedly intended to uncover information on Wrights estranged wife, Michelle, who hadnt been living with him and was suspected of college financial-aid fraud...
Read More:
The United States of SWAT? | National Review Online
DRUDGE REPORT 2014®
Military-style units from government agencies are wreaking havoc on non-violent citizens.
By John Fund
Regardless of how people feel about Nevada rancher Cliven Bundys standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management over his cattles grazing rights, a lot of Americans were surprised to see TV images of an armed-to-the-teeth paramilitary wing of the BLM deployed around Bundys ranch.
They shouldnt have been. Dozens of federal agencies now have Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to further an expanding definition of their missions. Its not controversial that the Secret Service and the Bureau of Prisons have them. But what about the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? All of these have their own SWAT units and are part of a worrying trend towards the militarization of federal agencies not to mention local police forces.
Law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier, journalist Radley Balko writes in his 2013 book Rise of the Warrior Cop. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.
The proliferation of paramilitary federal SWAT teams inevitably brings abuses that have nothing to do with either drugs or terrorism. Many of the raids they conduct are against harmless, often innocent, Americans who typically are accused of non-violent civil or administrative violations.
Take the case of Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif., who was visited by a SWAT team from the U.S. Department of Education in June 2011. Agents battered down the door of his home at 6 a.m., dragged him outside in his boxer shorts, and handcuffed him as they put his three children (ages 3, 7, and 11) in a police car for two hours while they searched his home. The raid was allegedly intended to uncover information on Wrights estranged wife, Michelle, who hadnt been living with him and was suspected of college financial-aid fraud...
Read More:
The United States of SWAT? | National Review Online
DRUDGE REPORT 2014®
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