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1 nines09  Jun 25, 2014 12:07:35pm

Well when you got snappy Kevlar suits and helmets with all kinds of government surplus military firepower and armored vehicles straight out of Baghdad, why not use them on a scofflaw? “Can I go? Huh? Huh? Can I?”

2 Aunty Entity Dragon  Jun 25, 2014 2:06:59pm

re: #1 Nines All The Times

Well when you got snappy Kevlar suits and helmets with all kinds of government surplus military firepower and armored vehicles straight out of Baghdad, why not use them on a scofflaw? “Can I go? Huh? Huh? Can I?”

Some peope in LE call it “Tacti-cool” syndrome. What seems certain is that there has been a steady erosion of community based policing and a commisurate trend towards militarized enforcement and the treatment of the public as potential enemies.

Time, time and time again, you see escalation of force as the first and only option when officers are challenged, questioned or even mildly annoyed. Encounters that would have been routine and trivial 30 years ago are now life threatening experiences for members of the public. Scarce wonder that community workers in big cities now advise the poor and minorities to not call the police if at all possible, and to treat them as you would a “dangerous wild animal, using slow, calm speech and keeping your hands visible with slow movements”.

3 nines09  Jun 25, 2014 3:52:32pm

Trigger happy hard guys. And then they get away with it and now they are bullet proof. Quite a few boys with shields have no business wearing that shield. I said it constantly here; Calling the cops can be the wrong thing to do. When I was young, it was the absolute last thing you did. Ever. Unless you wanted your wig split and your ass kicked and a stint in a sweatbox in your local Precinct.

4 Romantic Heretic  Jun 25, 2014 4:32:44pm

On top of the mindset already mentioned there is also a fair bit of fear. A lot of perps these days are very well armed and in such a situation you have to hit hard and fast.

The problem is their intel sucks and so the police treat every situation as a deadly one.

If the police want to be militarized then they’re going to have to have a soldier’s ethos. As Maj General Sir John Hackett put it, “The essence of a soldier is not to kill, but to die.”

5 1Peter G1  Jun 25, 2014 4:37:17pm

What’s a good cause? I’ve had many a discussion on the same subject elsewhere. Why do the police use no knock warrants and wear bullet proof vests? Just a guess here but I think it has something to do with the phenomenal number of Americans armed to the teeth with military grade weapons of their own. As a modest suggestion I have proposed that people who think the police are evolving into tools of the fascist state (popular language on both the extreme left and right) step up and volunteer to knock on those doors. This happens to be one of those issues where the ideological extremes are virtually indistinguishable.

6 ComradeDread  Jun 25, 2014 6:16:41pm
Well when you got snappy Kevlar suits and helmets with all kinds of government surplus military firepower and armored vehicles straight out of Baghdad, why not use them on a scofflaw? “Can I go? Huh? Huh? Can I?”

I suspect this is a big part of it.

If SWAT only went out on hostage calls or calls where a suspect has already escalated the situation to warrant combat tactics and deadly force, they would hardly be deployed at all in most cities. Gotta do something to justify getting all that army surplus from the DoD.

It would be nice if judges actually took the time to perform oversight on these no-knock raids rather than rubber stamp them.

7 socrets  Jun 25, 2014 7:36:31pm

re: #4 Romantic Heretic

Just perps? Try everyone from Grandma Milly to Gramps who replaced his wooden leg with an AK.

8 Blue Fielder  Jun 25, 2014 8:10:35pm

They have really big hammers and they see really big nails everywhere.

9 KerFuFFler  Jun 26, 2014 7:22:38am

re: #5 1Peter G1

Just a guess here but I think it has something to do with the phenomenal number of Americans armed to the teeth with military grade weapons of their own.

Excellent point! That said, I do wish that the police would be a lot more careful in executing such warrants. Going to the wrong frickin’ address is just unacceptable. If you are prepared to use deadly force, at a minimum you should make sure you are at the right place. I also wonder how careful the police are to screen “tips” from callers who may falsely report criminal activity just to settle a score with enemies.


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