The Militarization of Law Enforcement

[wkmac]

At around 9:00 a.m. on May 5, 2011, officers with the Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff's Department's Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) team surrounded the home of 26-year-old José Guerena, a former U.S. Marine and veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq, to serve a search warrant for narcotics. As the officers approached, Guerena lay sleeping in his bedroom after working the graveyard shift at a local mine. When his wife Vanessa woke him up, screaming that she had seen a man outside the window pointing a gun at her, Guerena grabbed his AR-15 rifle, instructed Vanessa to hide in the closet with their four-year old son, and left the bedroom to investigate.
Within moments, and without Guerena firing a shot--or even switching his rifle off of "safety"--he lay dying, his body riddled with 60 bullets. A subsequent investigation revealed that the initial shot that prompted the S.W.A.T. team barrage came from a S.W.A.T. team gun, not Guerena's. Guerena, reports later revealed, had no criminal record, and no narcotics were found at his home.
Sadly, the Guerenas are not alone; in recent years we have witnessed a proliferation in incidents of excessive, military-style force by police S.W.A.T. teams, which often make national headlines due to their sheer brutality. Why has it become routine for police departments to deploy black-garbed, body-armored S.W.A.T. teams for routine domestic police work? The answer to this question requires a closer examination of post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy and the War on Terror.

continued at The Atlantic: How the War on Terror has Militarized the Police

Barney Fife would have loved the current security state.

 

[texan]

continued at The Atlantic: How the War on Terror has Militarized the Police

Barney Fife would have loved the current security state.

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You correct on this sir that it was wrong. There is no reason for this that I can find. I do not condem them, but It is fishy that that 20 mill settlement was so easily obtained. Perhaps there are other things we do not know.

On August 12, it was announced that the family of Jose Guerena filed an intention to sue the Pima County, Sheriff Dupnik, and all the officers who shot Guerena or were part of the raid, offering to settle for $20 million. The lawsuit cites that the officers acted with neligence when they failed to announce themselves and put Guerena's wife and son in danger, and willingly deprived Guerena of medical attention after he was shot, leading up to his death, and violated his civil rights. The lawyer for the family says the lawsuit is meant to hold those accountable for Guerena's death and send a message to officers who have unlawfully killed citizens. The lawyer for the officers, however, says that the lawsuit is only to cause more hysteria and the amount is excessive since the officers had already been cleared of wrongdoing.