Columbia, Missouri Police Chief: “I Hate the Internet”

Amanda

Calm as a Hindu cow
Nov 28, 2008
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Columbia, Missouri Police Chief Ken Burton is apparently frustrated. At another press conference yesterday, a reporter asked the chief what he has learned from the international attention generated by the YouTube video of his department’s SWAT team conducting a drug raid last February.

His reply: “I hate the Internet.”

I’ll bet he does. For two-and-a-half months, Burton and his department were quiet about the raid. That’s likely because, as I wrote yesterday, the raid was really no different from the tens of thousands of similar raids conducted every year, and that are probably conducted by his own department a couple of times per week. Within days of the video hitting the web, Burton was forced to hold several press conferences, and has now laid out several reforms to the way SWAT raids will be conducted in Columbia in the future. I suppose it’s possible those reforms were brewing all along, and the timing of him announcing them after the video went viral was mere coincidence. It seems at least plausible, though, that the dread “Internet” sparked some actual policy changes, here.

Unfortunately the changes—while small steps in the right direction—still miss the point. Burton says his department will no longer conduct SWAT raids at night. They won’t conduct raids in homes where children are present. Suspects will be under constant surveillance until the raid is carried out. And raids will be conducted within a shorter period of time from when police get the initial tip about a suspected drug dealer. But the Columbia Police Department will still conduct volatile, violent, highly aggressive forced-entry raids on people suspected of consensual, nonviolent drug crimes. That is what’s wrong with the YouTube video. Changing the time of day of the raid doesn’t change the wildly disproportionate use of force.

Full article at: Columbia, Missouri Police Chief: “I Hate the Internet” | The Agitator)

Discuss police procedure...
 
Oh i bet he does..... Coincidentally, the rest of us HATE his SWAT team.
 
Many say to legalize marijuana and tax it. I say, why not let people grow their own and not tax something for once.

I do not smoke marijuana but that raid was over marijuana and it was way outta control. People like their weed and it won't go away. It takes up too much of policemen's time and it stops nothing.
 
Oh i bet he does..... Coincidentally, the rest of us HATE his SWAT team.

Sorry, but why the fuck does Columbia Missouri need a SWAT team anyways? It's basically a small town with a large university that has it's own police force.

My brother went to Mizzou and said he liked the Columbia Cops a lot better than the Mizzou Cops.
 
Oh i bet he does..... Coincidentally, the rest of us HATE his SWAT team.

Sorry, but why the fuck does Columbia Missouri need a SWAT team anyways? It's basically a small town with a large university that has it's own police force.

My brother went to Mizzou and said he liked the Columbia Cops a lot better than the Mizzou Cops.

Columbia is the 5th largest city in the state with a population over 100k. It's not exactly a small town.
 
Columbia is the 5th largest city in the state with a population over 100k. It's not exactly a small town.

I am in K.C., an actual city. Being 5th in population and two spots below Springfield in the population scale still begs the question why Columbia has a SWAT team?

It makes you wonder if a driving factor behind the incident is the fact that the small city has a bored SWAT team that was looking for something to raid.

They obviously aren't a "crack team". Most SWAT teams don't shoot things that pose no threat to them.
 

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