andyt andyt:
How our police became soldiers (and how we can change them back)
http://www.seattleglobalist.com/2014/08 ... ings/28591The problem is that there's no longer a balance between the SWAT teams and the normal cops. These days it seems that every cop in a major city is outfitted with SWAT gear.
One of the terms I heard from an older guy (older than me!) is 'Tacticool'. There's a growing number of cops who LIKE to put on tactical gear and then go kick in doors as if Mayberry was in Syria. They throw flash-bang grenades and even lay down suppressing fire in some situations.
And that's in the absence of a suspect opening fire.
In one raid in Yolo County I got to see tear gas fired into a farm house, flash-bang grenades were simultaneously deployed, and then officers entered the house only to find a few things:
1. No one was home.
2. The house was empty.
3. It was the wrong house.
Turns out Road 25 and Road 27 are not the same road. Imagine that!
In any case, this whole show was put on when all that was really needed was for someone to knock on the door, see that there was no one home and that the house was empty, and then to double-check the warrant to find out WTF was going on.
In a perfect irony the guy who was the subject of the raid was driving by and he stopped to ask what was going on. When he was asked if he knew "Dave Merwin" he says, 'Yeah, that's me.'
Drama followed after which it was determined that Mr. Merwin hadn't done one damn thing wrong.
And Yolo County was on the hook for fixing the raided house to the tune of about $100,000.00
But of course I was wrong for criticizing the way the raid was conducted. You'd have thought I was committing religious heresy with the response I got.
And Yolo is actually not bad as these things go.
