cannabisnews.com: The Empire Turns Its Guns on the Citizenry





The Empire Turns Its Guns on the Citizenry
Posted by CN Staff on January 24, 2007 at 10:34:31 PT
By Paul Craig Roberts
Source: Baltimore Chronicle
USA -- SWAT teams (Special Weapons and Tactics) were once rare and used only for very dangerous situations, often involving hostages held by armed criminals. Today SWAT teams are deployed for routine police duties. In recent years American police forces have called out SWAT teams 40,000 or more times annually. Last year did you read in your newspaper or hear on TV news of 110 hostage or terrorist events each day? No. What then were the SWAT teams doing? They were serving routine warrants to people who posed no danger to the police or to the public.
Occasionally Washington think tanks produce reports that are not special pleading for donors. One such report is Radley Balko's "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America" (Cato Institute, 2006).This 100-page report is extremely important and should have been published as a book. In the US today, 75-80% of SWAT deployments are for warrant service.In a high percentage of the cases, the SWAT teams forcefully enter the wrong address, resulting in death, injury, and trauma to perfectly innocent people. Occasionally, highly keyed-up police kill one another in the confusion caused by their stun grenades.Mr. Balko reports that the use of paramilitary police units began in Los Angeles in the 1960s. The militarization of local police forces got a big boost from Attorney General Ed Meese's "war on drugs" during the Reagan administration. A National Security Decision Directive was issued that declared drugs to be a threat to US national security. In 1988 Congress ordered the National Guard into the domestic drug war. In 1994 the Department of Defense issued a memorandum authorizing the transfer of military equipment and technology to state and local police, and Congress created a program "to facilitate handing military gear over to civilian police agencies."Today 17,000 local police forces are equipped with such military equipment as Blackhawk helicopters, machine guns, grenade launchers, battering rams, explosives, chemical sprays, body armor, night vision, rappelling gear and armored vehicles. Some have tanks. In 1999, the New York Times reported that a retired police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, told the newspaper, "I was offered tanks, bazookas, anything I wanted." Balklo reports that in 1997, for example, police departments received 1.2 million pieces of military equipment.With local police forces now armed beyond the standard of US heavy infantry, police forces have been retrained "to vaporize, not Mirandize," to use a phrase from Reagan administration defense official Lawrence Korb. This leaves the public at the mercy of brutal actions based on bad police information from paid informers.SWAT team deployments received a huge boost from the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, which gave states federal money for drug enforcement. Balko explains that "the states then disbursed the money to local police departments on the basis of each department's number of drug arrests."With financial incentives to maximize drug arrests and with idle SWAT teams due to a paucity of hostage or other dangerous situations, local police chiefs threw their SWAT teams into drug enforcement. In practice, this has meant using SWAT teams to serve warrants on drug users.SWAT teams serve warrants by breaking into homes and apartments at night while people are sleeping, often using stun grenades and other devices to disorient the occupants. As much of the police's drug information comes from professional informers known as "snitches" who tip off police for cash rewards, dropped charges, and reduced sentences, names and addresses are often pulled out of a hat. Balko provides details for 135 tragic cases of mistaken addresses.SWAT teams are not held accountable for their tragic mistakes and gratuitous brutality. SWAT teams are not held accountable for their tragic mistakes and gratuitous brutality. Police killings got so bad in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for example, that the city hired criminologist Sam Walker to conduct an investigation of police tactics. Killings by police were "off the charts," Walker found, because the SWAT team "had an organizational culture that led them to escalate situations upward rather then de-escalating."The mind-set of militarized SWAT teams is geared to "taking out" or killing the suspect-- thus, the many deaths from SWAT team utilization. Many innocent people are killed in night time SWAT team entries, because they don't realize that it is the police who have broken into their homes. They believe they are confronted by dangerous criminals, and when they try to defend themselves they are shot down by the police.As Lawrence Stratton and I have reported, one of many corrupting influences on the criminal justice (sic) system is the practice of paying "snitches" to generate suspects. In 1995 the Boston Globe profiled people who lived entirely off the fees that they were paid as police informants. Snitches create suspects by selling a small amount of marijuana to a person who they then report to the police as being in possession of drugs. Balko reports that "an overwhelming number of mistaken raids take place because police relied on information from confidential informants." In Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, 87% of drug raids originated in tips from snitches.Many police informers are themselves drug dealers who avoid arrest and knock off competitors by serving as police snitches.Surveying the deplorable situation, the National Law Journal concluded: "Criminals have been turned into instruments of law enforcement, while law enforcement officers have become criminal co-conspirators."Balko believes the problem could be reduced if judges scrutinized unreliable information before issuing warrants. If judges would actually do their jobs, there would be fewer innocent victims of SWAT brutality. However, as long as the war on drugs persists and as long as it produces financial rewards to police departments, local police forces—saturated with military weapons and war imagery—will continue to terrorize American citizens. Paul Craig Roberts wrote the Kemp-Roth bill and was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is author or coauthor of eight books, including The Supply-Side Revolution (Harvard University Press). He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has contributed to numerous scholar journals and testified before Congress on 30 occasions. He has been awarded the U.S. Treasury's Meritorious Service Award and the French Legion of Honor. He was a reviewer for the Journal of Political Economy under editor Robert Mundell. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts yahoo.com Sidebar: SWAT teams (Special Weapons and Tactics) were once rare and used only for very dangerous situations, often involving hostages held by armed criminals. Today SWAT teams are deployed for routine police duties.Note: Your Local Police Force Has Been Militarized.Source: Baltimore Chronicle (MD)Author: Paul Craig RobertsPublished: Janaury 24, 2007Copyright: 2007 The Baltimore Chronicle and the SentinelWebsite: http://baltimorechronicle.com/Contact: editor baltimorechronicle.comCannabisNews Justice Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/justice.shtml
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Comment #16 posted by The GCW on January 25, 2007 at 14:04:24 PT
SWATSTIKA
SWATSTIKA
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Comment #15 posted by museman on January 25, 2007 at 11:30:02 PT
Hope
Until "The time to come when no man will teach his brother, saying 'know the Father', because the laws and the knowledge of God will be written in their hearts and minds." We do need 'rules' as guidelines.The way in which we deal with each other - in times of real or precieved crimes, is also part of those same rules. it is not enough (and is in fact an error)to appoint and create a special class of people to do the job that we should be doing ourselves, the results of doing just that since the Sumerian 'gods' created the whole class/government/weights and measures of commerce etc., are becoming apallingly apparent.If we abdicate our own responsibility to govern ourselves under the clear guidelines of "God's Rules" notably Yashua's, and John Lennon's "Love is all you need", then what we get is just what we have.Kind of like how Israel went downhill from the point they decided they needed a king.
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Comment #14 posted by museman on January 25, 2007 at 11:16:31 PT
Hope
"They can stand as straight as we want to stand...with respect for each other...but no body required to bow to anyone."There's that 'rock' again. Another facet of unassailable truth, and immovable logic. One either embraces that rock, foolishly dashes themselves apart on it's solidity, or surrenders to it, there is no 'conquering' the truth.
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on January 25, 2007 at 11:12:32 PT
Following legitamate rules and laws
doesn't bother me at all. "Bowing" down to the unreasonable demands of others is another matter.
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Comment #12 posted by Hope on January 25, 2007 at 11:11:05 PT
Prohibition laws are different than other laws
and rules. Prohibition laws require that those who want to use the substance some would prohibit...are instead made to "bow" to the demands of those who don't want their "subjects" to use the substance.I can bow to no man or woman. That is reserved for my God, only.
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on January 25, 2007 at 11:07:02 PT
Museman
What you said about refusing to bow down to them made me think.They really do want us to bow down to them. They really do. All the prohibitionists want us to bow down to them, too.We don't want them to "bow" to us. (That would be freaky. I don't want anyone bowing to me.)They can stand as straight as we want to stand...with respect for each other...but no body required to bow to anyone.
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Comment #10 posted by museman on January 25, 2007 at 10:48:12 PT
Hope
When I came back from the 'cold war' the change was only just beginning. In 1972 I could talk to a cop like any other human being, by 1974 they were up in arms. It is true that the WOD empowered the police in a way that attracted even more predatory individuals than were already there, but in my experience it was our protests; Vietnam, and the environment, that created the emnity. We questioned their authority, and no one had ever done that for quite a long time - not since they massacred the WW 1 vets on the whitehouse lawn.We questioned their authority, and their validity - that was the major factor in the change from public servants to legalized thugs. We made them look foolish (gee I wonder why). We (or at least I did) laughed at their prevailing ineptitude, and refused to bow down. The government recieved the same, so they began to mandate more powers to the cops. The WOD was, and still is, just an excuse to militarize the police, but the reasons were political and spiritual.
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on January 25, 2007 at 10:24:23 PT
ekim
Indeed. I appreciate it. I hadn't brought that particular page up before. I read the article that was linked to the L.E.A.P. site. Here's where I read about how Mr. White came to join L.E.A.P..http://mapinc.org/newsleap/v05/n1558/a04.html
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Comment #8 posted by ekim on January 25, 2007 at 10:06:26 PT
Hope 
if you can read the Leap blog from time to time it might have Mr White on soon. i wish more could read the good writing that is done there.
http://blog.leap.cc/
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Comment #7 posted by Sukoi on January 24, 2007 at 14:49:25 PT
Radley Balko
Radleys' paper, on which this article is based, can be read here:Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in Americahttp://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476He's also the Senior Editor of Reason Magazine and regularly posts in the "Hit & Run" section:http://www.reason.com/He also has a personal blog that I read daily:The Agitatorhttp://www.theagitator.com/He's an excellent writer and it's largely because of him that the case of Corey Maye has had so much publicity.
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Comment #6 posted by Toker00 on January 24, 2007 at 14:34:06 PT
It's time to launch the "STOP SWATTING US"
Campaign. I feel so sorry for the people who have been "SWATTED". They know that we can't "SWAT" back. It takes a heartless, soulless, conscious-less person to become a "SWATTER". So they do this to just give SWAT something to do? Jeeeeezzzz.Toke. 
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on January 24, 2007 at 14:19:52 PT
Police and L.E.A.P. and Rusty White.
Rusty White...if, perchance, you are reading this...I want to tell you I read the story the other evening of how you came to quit the police force and join L.E.A.P.I appreciate it. Also it seems like you haven't posted for quite a while at Grits. I miss your posts. I hope you are ok.
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on January 24, 2007 at 14:16:33 PT
Police
They made an amazing transition somewhere along the line, no doubt...from public servants to public masters and headbangers. They went completely from "Protect and Serve", to "Suspect and Terrorize". The Drug War helped...or very likely, actually was the driving predominant factor in the transition.Our city police cars have "Protect and Serve" written in big letters down the side. I can just imagine that being changed to "Suspect and Terrorize". Can't you just see that cruising through the streets? It really should be emblazoned down the side of the narc-mobiles, but I guess that might break their cover.Visualizing that, made me think of that Sheriff who had that fancy black car with the black widow on it and billed himself as the "toughest sheriff in the country" or something like that. He even had a TV show for awhile. I think he went out of office in well deserved disgrace a couple or three years ago.
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Comment #3 posted by museman on January 24, 2007 at 13:29:00 PT
Yup
And when the boys get back from killing Iraquis, just what kind of job do you think they are going to get?Better pay, better guns, better armor - easier work busting harmless American citizens than actual criminals, or people who fight back.Quite a little fraternity they got going.
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on January 24, 2007 at 11:43:33 PT
Militarized police
"Guess we know who they work for." I think our so called leaders are afraid of them as well...and don't have the nerve to restrict the monster they've created.If the police today think someone in authority disapproves of their actions or might try to slow them down...they go after that person and will find some dirt or something to get them with, council member, prosecutor, or D.A., it doesn't matter. They love being SWAT and they want to keep it...no matter what.Even when politicans hate in their hearts what the police are doing, they either don't want to endanger that amazingly huge voting bloc, or they are afraid of the very thing they created...and rightly so.It will take some mighty brave and aggressive people to get us out of this paramilitary nightmare.
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Comment #1 posted by zandor on January 24, 2007 at 11:22:01 PT
WOW
You would think major media would be all over this report.Guess we know who they work for.Fair and balanced.....funny words!
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