How Military Culture Turned America Into the land of SWAT

[Tgace]

http://www.ehow.com/about_5432055_police-officers-starting-salary.html

The starting salary for a typical police officer ranges between $25,000 and $52,000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average annual salary of all police officers working in the United States was $47,460 as of May 2006. The middle 50 percent of police officers in the U.S. earns between $35,000 to just under $60,000 a year, while the highest 10 percent earned more than $72,000 a year.

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/about_5432055_police-officers-starting-salary.html#ixzz2ZFscXoHX

http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=71

• Average starting salaries for entry-level local police officers in 2007 ranged from $26,600 per year in the smallest jurisdictions to $49,500 in the largest. Overall, the average starting salary earned by entry-level officers was about $40,500.

 

[Tgace]

http://rescuehumor.com/police-militarization-history-lesson-and-reality-check/

 

[Makalakumu]

http://rescuehumor.com/police-militarization-history-lesson-and-reality-check/

Time for a recap. Various talking heads and conspiracy theorist are postulating that police militarization is the first step in declaring martial law and turning the USA into some dictatorship. These people point to the use of military weapons and military vehicles by local police as facts to support their theories.
But the fact is cops have had machine guns and armored cars for decades. If these are the first step in martial law, how long does it take to make this first step? Seriously we have been taking this first step since the early 1900s. Is this some kind of multi generational conspiracy?
More likely the conspiracy theories and the bleeding heats have never studied police history. What they see as Police Militarization, is nothing more than good officers using the tools needed to keep the public safe AND ensure they go home alive at the end of shift.

So, the truth is that the cops have always been tools of those in power? I'm not sure that is the case. I think if we look at the powers of the average sheriff, we find that police are just local people working together to keep the peace and limit outside influence on their jurisdiction.

 

[Tgace]

Don't confuse the history of policing in the old West which was centered heavily (and in some places still is) on the role of the Sheriff and the history of policing in the more heavily populated urban centers of the Northeast and the original colonies.

 

[Tgace]

What is the definition of military equipment anyways? Except for a relatively small number of items, when it comes to individual items civilians have access to it. Almost all of the equipment we are talking about civilians have access to.

This is a rhetorical discussion that doesn't really make sense once you think about it. The tactics and application differ wildly as does the mission.

 

[arnisador]

It doesn't matter whether it's literally SWAT or not--this is the type of thing that's problematic:

Police raid felt like home invasion

The woman and her boyfriend had just finished a late dinner:

Goldsberry, 59, said she had looked up from the sink to see a man “wearing a hunting vest.”

He was aiming a gun at her face, with a red light pinpointing her.

“I screamed and screamed,” she said.

But she also scrambled across the floor to her bedroom and grabbed her gun, a five-shot .38-caliber revolver. Goldsberry has a concealed weapons permit and says the gun has made her feel safer living alone. But she felt anything but safe when she heard a man yelling to open the door.

He was claiming to be a police officer, but the man she had seen looked to her more like an armed thug. Her boyfriend, Dorris, was calmer, and yelled back that he wanted to see some ID.

But the man just demanded they open the door. The actual words, the couple say, were, “We're the f------ police; open the f------ door.”

The marshal who led the raid was interviewed and spoke candidly about it:

[Deputy U.S. Marshal Wiggins] said they had a tip that a child-rape suspect was at the complex.
[...]
The tip was never about Goldsberry's apartment, specifically, Wiggins acknowledged. It was about the complex.

But when the people in Goldsberry's apartment didn't open up, that told Wiggins he had probably found the right door. No one at other units had reacted that way, he said.

Yes, if you don't want police entering your house without a warrant you're probably guilty of something--given that the Fourth Amendment is as good as dead these days. The woman had a CCW permit and had reached for her gun when she saw the gun pointed at her and was worried it was a home invasion. Do police like it when you use your Second Amendment rights? Well:

[The woman said]“I was thinking, is this some kind of nutjob?”

No, just a well-trained officer who knows how to go after a man assumed to be a dangerous felon, but isn't so good at understanding a frightened woman confronted with an aggressive armed stranger coming after her in her own home.

“I feel bad for her,” Wiggins conceded, finally. “But at the same time, I had to reasonably believe the bad guy was in her house based on what they were doing.”

Goldsberry wasn't arrested or shot despite pointing a gun at a cop, so Wiggins said, “She sure shouldn't be going to the press.”

Yes--if you don't open the door for a warrantless search (they were actually just asking for police ID before opening it), that's justification for doing a warrantless entry and search. It's Catch-22: If you ask for a warrant, they don't need a warrant; here they merely asked for ID--not even a warrant--and the marshal used that to conclude they were guilty.

How can even U.S. Marshals--and yes, I know they have particularly extensive authority--search every apt. in a complex base on a single (and, as it turns out, inaccurate) tip?

 

[arnisador]

This is a rhetorical discussion that doesn't really make sense once you think about it. The tactics and application differ wildly as does the mission.

It makes sense to me. When to use what tactic is a matter of judgment and choice, based on many factors--and the concern is that the point at which certain tactics are authorized has steadily dropped. It's true that there are more situations that are more dangerous but the level of threat required for letting loose with paramiltary tactics seems also to have dropped.

 

[Tgace]

How can even U.S. Marshals--and yes, I know they have particularly extensive authority--search every apt. in a complex base on a single (and, as it turns out, inaccurate) tip?

Where does it say they did THAT? Knock and talks are not searches and don't require a warrant.

 

[arnisador]

What I understood is that they asked people if they could go in and search their apts. and when this couple asked for ID first they took that as license to charge in. It's possible they didn't end up searching every single one of them.

 

[arnisador]

Rise of the Warrior Cop
Is it time to reconsider the militarization of American policing?

From the author of a recently released book, "Rise of the Warrior Cop":

Since the 1960s, in response to a range of perceived threats, law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment[...]American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield [creating] a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop—armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.

He talks about hos this has always been a special concern in the U.S. and how we got here, starting in the 60s in L.A.:

Americans have long been wary of using the military for domestic policing. Concerns about potential abuse date back to the creation of the Constitution, when the founders worried about standing armies and the intimidation of the people at large by an overzealous executive, who might choose to follow the unhappy precedents set by Europe's emperors and monarchs.[...]During the Reagan administration, SWAT-team methods converged with the drug war. By the end of the 1980s, joint task forces brought together police officers and soldiers for drug interdiction. National Guard helicopters and U-2 spy planes flew the California skies in search of marijuana plants. When suspects were identified, battle-clad troops from the National Guard, the DEA and other federal and local law enforcement agencies would swoop in to eradicate the plants and capture the people growing them.

Recently there has been...

an alarming degree of mission creep for U.S. SWAT teams. When the craze for poker kicked into high gear, a number of police departments responded by deploying SWAT teams to raid games in garages, basements and VFW halls where illegal gambling was suspected.[...]Assault-style raids have even been used in recent years to enforce regulatory law. Armed federal agents from the Fish & Wildlife Service raided the floor of the Gibson Guitar factory in Nashville in 2009, on suspicion of using hardwoods that had been illegally harvested in Madagascar. Gibson settled in 2012, paying a $300,000 fine and admitting to violating the Lacey Act. In 2010, the police department in New Haven, Conn., sent its SWAT team to raid a bar where police believed there was underage drinking. For sheer absurdity, it is hard to beat the 2006 story about the Tibetan monks who had overstayed their visas while visiting America on a peace mission. In Iowa, the hapless holy men were apprehended by a SWAT team in full gear.

It's an attitude issue among LEOs and those who wish to join their ranks, he suggests:

Consider today's police recruitment videos (widely available on YouTube), which often feature cops rappelling from helicopters, shooting big guns, kicking down doors and tackling suspects. Such campaigns embody an American policing culture that has become too isolated, confrontational and militaristic, and they tend to attract recruits for the wrong reasons.

If you browse online police discussion boards, or chat with younger cops today, you will often encounter some version of the phrase, "Whatever I need to do to get home safe." It is a sentiment that suggests that every interaction with a citizen may be the officer's last.

He suggests a return to a greater emphasis on community policing.

 

[Tgace]

Rise of the Warrior Cop
Is it time to reconsider the militarization of American policing?

From the author of a recently released book, "Rise of the Warrior Cop":



He talks about hos this has always been a special concern in the U.S. and how we got here, starting in the 60s in L.A.:



Recently there has been...



It's an attitude issue among LEOs and those who wish to join their ranks, he suggests:



He suggests a return to a greater emphasis on community policing.

Yawn. Balko is a hardcore libertarian who writes for HuffPo..hardly an unbiased opinion there.

Read this:

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/07/21/radley-balko-frets-over-warrior-cops/

 

[Tgace]

If you browse online police discussion boards, or chat with younger cops today, you will often encounter some version of the phrase, "Whatever I need to do to get home safe." It is a sentiment that suggests that every interaction with a citizen may be the officer's last.

Yeah I wonder where that comes from?

 

[arnisador]

Yawn. Balko is a hardcore libertarian who writes for HuffPo..hardly an unbiased opinion there.

Read this:

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/07/21/radley-balko-frets-over-warrior-cops/

Well, he begins by agreeing about a key case:

His tale begins with a review of the story of Matthew David Stewart, a person who wound up in what was certainly a questionable case of police force employed during his arrest on charges of growing marijuana plants in his home.[...]The Stewart case described in the article is another case where things not only turned out badly, but could have been even worse. When police are “invading” a home to arrest a suspect and seize contraband, it’s hardly an unreasonable assumption that the suspect may react violently in an attempt to defeat the police and escape. Stewart may have “thought” he was being invaded by other criminals, but it was his choice to grab a gun and start shooting.

This is part of the point. I keep being told here how great guns are for home defense, but here's two stories (with the one about the woman and her boyfriend) where people are breaking in without announcing they're cops, the homeowner/resident gets their gun, and the response seems to be that "it was his choice to grab a gun and start shooting" in response to unannounced entry. What's the message here? Don't fire until you can be certain it's not just cops who are not announcing themselves to be such, or not providing ID when asked to do so? The woman didn't even fire and it was still held against her by the marshal that she picked up her weapon. Bursting in unannounced and then complaining when the person picks up a weapon--this makes sense to you?

 

[arnisador]

Lots of jobs are dangerous. As Balko points out, "To Protect and Serve" sounds better than "It's Us Against Them". The point is that most of us aren't doing anything wrong but, like the woman in the previous story, are treated as criminals regardless.

 

[Tgace]

Sure lots of jobs are dangerous but if you cant differentiate between the societal value of soldiers, firemen, cops, EMT's etc and cashiers, cab drivers and fisherman than I see no point in talking to you any longer here.

Sure lots of jobs are dangerous. Firemen have dangerous jobs too...we don't expect them to go into a fire without their helmets or a fire axe. I accept the risks of my job but I'm not throwing my life away simply to make someone feel better.

Frankly I don't care what you feel if I approach your car with my hand on my gun. As long as I'm expected to execute warrants on possibly armed individuals Im wearing a helmet and a vest.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

[jks9199]

An interesting take on the issue: Next time you think, "I don't like cops"

The other day, someone whom I adore made mention to someone else how, ‘they didn’t like cops’, because they get to do things the rest of us are not privileged to do only because they’re the law.

This common paradox within our society today intrigued me to the point of wanting to talk about it in a few insignificant and meaningless words.

You know, I think I have said the same thing only because one or two cops, in my entire life, have caused me grief whether it was a ticket, ( I obviously did not deserve ), or some smart *** reply directed my way when I interfered with their presumably mundane day. Shame on me for being so presumptuous.

Pretty petty now as I see it. Pretty petty of me.

 

[Makalakumu]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...ls-raid-animal-shelter-kill-ba/#ixzz2apW6EBik

Two weeks ago, Ray Schulze was working in a barn at the Society of St. Francis no-kill animal shelter in Kenosha, Wis., when officials swarmed the shelter with a search warrant.
“[There were] nine [Department of Natural Resources] agents and four deputy sheriffs, and they were all armed to the teeth,” Mr. Schulze told WISN 12. “It was like a SWAT team.”

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PHOTOS: What are the chances?

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The agents were there to retrieve a baby deer named Giggles that was dropped off by a family worried she had been abandoned by her mother, the station reported. Wisconsin law forbids the possession of wildlife.
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“I said the deer is scheduled to go to the wildlife reserve the next day,” Mr. Schulze told the station. “I was thinking in my mind they were going to take the deer and take it to a wildlife shelter, and here they come carrying the baby deer over their shoulder. She was in a body bag. I said, ‘Why did you do that?’ He said, ‘That’s our policy,’ and I said, ‘That’s one hell of a policy.’”
Department of Natural Resources Supervisor Jennifer Niemeyer told WISN 12 that the law requires DNR agents to euthanize wild animals because of their potential danger.


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...ls-raid-animal-shelter-kill-ba/#ixzz2aw9zSxl6
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

 

[Tgace]

Well that was just plain stupid..but has nothing to do with SWAT.

 

[Makalakumu]

Well that was just plain stupid..but has nothing to do with SWAT.

Maybe, but notice that the person victimized described it as SWAT...it's an image problem.

 

[arnisador]

SWAT

I think you may be using this term in a more limited, traditional manner than the general public is. You can't keep words from acquiring broader meanings. Heck, I still bristle when I see a KARATE sign at a TKD school, but what can you do?